MOSCOW, March 31, 2008 (AFP) - Russian authorities on Monday brought in a priest specialising in apocalyptic literature to persuade members of a doomsday sect holed up in a cave to come out, Interfax news agency reported.

Father Hermogen 'is a specialist in the Book of Revelation,' said Oleg Melnichenko, deputy governor of the region of Penza, some 500 kilometres (311 miles) southeast of Moscow, Interfax reported.

Interfax quoted officials as saying that Father Hermogen had spoken to members of the sect Monday through a ventilation shaft for the cave, in a windswept ravine near the farming village of Nikolskoye. They did not say if he had made any progress.

Thirty-five members of the Orthodox sect, including four children, barricaded themselves in the cave five months ago to await the Apocalypse, which they calculated would come in May 2008.

After part of the cave collapsed, seven members of the cult came out on Friday following negotiations with their leader, Pyotr Kuznetsov, who stayed on the surface when his followers entered the cave.

During talks with officials in recent months, cult members had threatened to blow themselves up with gas canisters if police tried to extract them by force. dt/ch/jj