MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's southern region of Ingushetia is trying to overcome its reputation for bombs, murders and shootouts by paying for a glossy supplement featuring strutting dancers and smiling mothers.

The eight-page, full colour supplement entitled "My Favourite Republic" appeared inside copies of the popular Moscow newspaper Komsomolskaya Pravda on Tuesday.

Inside the supplement a minister explains the secrets of the republic's economic success story, a baby lies peacefully in a modern hospital ward and photos show children laughing and playing football.

The supplement did not though mention the violence in the region as security forces struggle to quell an Islamist insurgency. Kidnappings, murders and assassinations are frequent.

"Ingushetia, it is an amazing, beautiful region," the supplement said on its front page. "You could talk about it endlessly."

Ingushetia borders Chechnya, the focus of two wars between Russian soldiers and rebels since 1994 which killed thousands and destroyed the region's economy. But over the last 12 months the violence has shifted to Ingushetia.

Military helicopters fly daily missions over Ingushetia and Western aid agencies say the army has to search the roadsides every morning for bombs and booby-traps.

In a fresh reminder of the violence, a series of explosions hit the region's biggest city, Nazran, on Tuesday. No one was injured.

"The customer (of the supplement) was the government of Ingushetia," the supplement's editor Natalya Korniyenko told Reuters. "The customer pays and we prepare the work."

A spokesperson for Ingush President Murat Zyazikov confirmed it had supplied information for the supplement but did not say how much it had paid for it to appear.

(Reporting by James Kilner; edited by Richard Meares)