MOSCOW (AP) -- The young millionaire leader of a southern Russian republic is calling for greater autonomy from

Moscow, complaining of the government's failure to deliver subsidies.

Kirsan Ilyumzhinov, 36, the elected president of Kalmykia, went on Russian television Tuesday night to say he

would push for secession.

On Wednesday, Ilyumzhinov backtracked a bit, saying he did not mean a political secession but was using the term

loosely in an attempt to draw attention to the region's economic woes.

``The official position of the leadership and people of the republic is to be in the Russian Federation,'' Ilyumzhinov

said on Russia's ORT television station.

A barren region along the Caspian Sea, Kalmykia has a population of 317,000 people. Kalmyks, descendants of

Mongol nomads who settled in the region in the 17th century, now account for nearly half of the region's population.

The comments drew a quick response from President Boris Yeltsin, who on Wednesday ordered a session of the

presidential Security Council on the issue.

``In the current difficult socio-economic situation, such statements threaten to destabilize the country's political

stability,'' Yeltsin's spokesman Dmitry Yakushkin said on Echo Moscow radio.

AP-NY-11-18-98 1744EST