ON THE CHECHEN/INGUSH BORDER (Reuters) - Desperate men and women pressed against barbed wire barriers Tuesday as they tried to pass through a tiny checkpoint between breakaway Chechnya and the neighboring province of Ingushetia.

At least one woman collapsed and died amid scenes of chaos.

Russian and Ingush officials blamed each other for the confusion as thousands of refugees queued either to get away from Moscow's pursuit of Islamic rebels in Chechnya or to return to rescue loved ones in the conflict zone.

In Oslo, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin defended the military campaign in a 50 minute meeting with President Clinton.

Russia has opened only a narrow crossing point, denying passage to thousands of people queuing in stadium-sized crowds for several kilometers (miles) on the border amid the worst fighting in the region since the 1994-96 Chechen war.

Russia said it had almost completely surrounded the regional capital Grozny and denied that worries over the conflict would undermine relations with the West.

Around 100 to 150 people crossed the border in both directions, while Russian troops had difficulty controlling the crowds trying to shove their way through barriers. Some troops told Reuters they fired over people's heads Monday.

``People there (in Chechnya) are going mad, they are throwing themselves at the barbed wire,'' said Leila Alkhadova, who reached Ingushetia Tuesday after a week-long wait.

``Why do you want to go there? It is hell out there,'' she shouted to the people waiting to cross back into Chechnya.

Heart Attack

Russian NTV television showed one elderly woman on the Ingush side of the border collapsing to the ground, spread-eagled after an apparent heart attack.

``She has died,'' said a bearded old man, weeping next to the corpse, which lay alone in the middle of the road.

Ingush President Ruslan Aushev, whose impoverished region has taken most refugees, said four people died overnight at the border and said Russia's forces held the refugees ``in contempt.''

Russian military officials and Ingush regional authorities exchanged blame for the chaos at the frontier.

Five buses crossed from Chechnya Tuesday, one with just three women, including one seriously hurt by being trampled in the crowd. A lorry had five men who said their fingerprints had been checked and their identities run through a computer. Four buses traveled in the other direction, from Ingushetia to Chechnya, also carrying only a few people.

Russia has come under increasing scrutiny over its Chechnya campaign and its treatment of the refugees. Russia's Emergencies Ministry said a total 190,000 people had fled Chechnya since the start of the campaign, 175,000 of them flooding into Ingushetia.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, in Oslo with other leaders to commemorate slain Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, said the world knew Chechnya was a Russian domestic matter.

``Regarding relations with our European and U.S. partners I do not see any sign of deterioration over Chechnya,'' Putin told the French daily newspaper Le Figaro.

During their meeting Clinton warned him that the offensive threatened to cause increasing civilian casualties, hurt world opinion of Russia and turn ordinary Chechens against Moscow, a U.S. official said.

In Strasbourg Tuesday, a committee of the Council of Europe human rights watchdog suggested Moscow was flouting Geneva conventions in Chechnya and requested an emergency debate on the operation.