Two police officers were shot dead in their car in the volatile southern Russian republic of Dagestan on Monday, a local Interior Ministry official said.

"A car was found with two killed police officers," the official said giving no further details.

The incident occurred in the republic's Khasavyurt district, near the administrative border with Chechnya, which saw two separatist wars with federal troops in the late 1990s-early 2000s.

Attacks on police and authorities blamed on Islamist militants and criminal groups have been a frequent occurrence in Dagestan, one of Russia's poorest regions.

Five people were killed and ten wounded as a suicide bomber drove a vehicle into the gates of the traffic police headquarters in Dagestan's capital, Makhachkala, in January.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev highlighted security and economic problems in the mainly Muslim North Caucasus late last year and ordered measures to end militant violence, clan rivalries, and pervasive corruption in the region.

MAKHACHKALA, February 22 (RIA Novosti)