Former Chechen rebel commander Sulim Yamadayev, a bitter rival Kremlin-appointed Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, was critically wounded in an assassination attempt in Dubai on Saturday, Russian newspapers reported Monday.

In September, Sulim's brother Ruslan, a deputy in Russia's lower house of parliament, was shot dead in an apparent contract killing in central Moscow.

The brothers were part of a powerful Chechen clan who fought the Kremlin during the first secessionist war in the early 1990s, before changing sides. In 2004, they were named Heroes of Russia, one of the country's highest honours, reported dpa.

Sulim Yamadayev challenged Kadyrov, another former rebel, for control over Chechnya's security forces until last summer, when he was dismissed from the military and forced to flee.

A rash of high-profile killings of Chechens in Moscow and abroad last month has spooked exiles from the war-torn Caucasus region and cast suspicion on Kadyrov.

Kadyrov has denied links to Ruslan Yamadayev's shooting and the murders of three Chechens in Vienna and Istanbul, calling such accusations an attempt to seed disorder and blacken his name.

Russian daily Moskovsky Komsomolets said Yamadayev had been attacked by unidentified gunmen in an underground garage at his home in Dubai mid-afternoon on Saturday.

He was hit by three bullets to the chest and shoulder, according to reports.

"I am now in the hospital in Dubai," the paper quoted Yamadayev's younger brother Isa as saying on Sunday.

"Sulim is in a poor state, unconscious, no one is allowed in the see him. But I think he will pull through. I hope... There have been so many attempts on his life."

In a conflicting earlier report, the United Arab Emirates' state news agency WAM cited Dubai's police chief Dhahi Khalfan Tamim as saying on Saturday that a younger Chechen man, Suleyman Madov, had been killed in what looked like a closely planned murder.

"It is obvious that the murderer knew the victim very well, and knew where he lives and parks his car," Tamim was quoted as saying.

A suspect identified by Dubai's authorities in the attack was able to escape the scene, daily Kommersant said Monday.

Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates' Premier Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum is to hold talks in Moscow on Monday with President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin press service said.

Sulim Yamadayev was commander of Vostok, a pro-Kremlin Chechen battalion, that is oft cited among Russia's most experienced and battle-hardened troops for its role fighting separatists rebels in the republic.

But local media reported in April that animosities between Yamadayev and Kadyrov had culminated in clashes between Vostok and Kadyrov's security forces.

Russian military officials have denied rumors of a shootout between the rival pro-Kremlin forces.

Last week, Medvedev backed lifting a federal anti-terrorism security regime in place since 1999 in a move that underlines Kremlin support and looks likely to boost Kadyrov's power.

Yamadayev, for his part, was relieved of command over Vostok in May over charges of kidnapping and illegal detentions.

The charges were later dropped, and, before being finally dismissed by the military in August, Yamadayev led Vostok troops in Russia's brief war with Georgia in August.