MOSCOW, January 23 (RIA Novosti) - Trips by foreign journalists to Russia's North Caucasus republic of Chechnya are still unsafe, although the situation has improved in the region, the Russian foreign minister said on Wednesday.

"Despite striking changes in Chechnya and in the North Caucasus on the whole, there nevertheless remain certain [criminals]... who are attempting to turn back the pages of history. They will certainly fail, but they can cause a lot of damage," Sergei Lavrov said.

Lavrov was responding to a question at a press conference in Moscow as to why entry to Chechnya for foreign media representatives was still not permitted.

"We are responsible to a great degree," the minister said. "One cannot go there without [armed] guards."

Moscow has substantially scaled down the number of federal troops in the republic since two anti-separatist campaigns in 1994-1996 and 1999-2001. However, periodic bomb attacks and clashes between insurgents and federal troops still occur in Chechnya and nearby republics, notably Ingushetia, which has seen a marked increase in insurgent activity of late.

Ramzan Kadyrov, appointed Chechen president by the Kremlin in early 2007, has said that "the counterterrorism operation in the region has been completed and today we are fighting criminal elements in the Republic of Chechnya."

Chechnya reported a 99% vote in favor of the pro-Kremlin party United Russia at Russia's December 2007 parliamentary polls.

In a sign of Chechnya's recent relative stability, the Russian Football Union is currently discussing plans to allow Terek FC, a Grozny-based Premier league soccer club, to play its home matches in the Chechen capital. The team presently plays in the town of Pyatigorsk in the North Caucasus.