Russian President Vladimir Putin told an audience of ardent supporters Wednesday that the main challenge faced by the nation going into the December 2 parliamentary elections was "to ensure the continuity" of the current policy course.

"We should do everything possible to resolve this problem ... that it is necessary to ensure the continuity of our policy towards the country's sustainable development," Putin was quoted as saying by news agency Interfax.

Putin addressed some 5,000 supporters who gathered in Moscow's Luzhniki stadium to rally in the name of "Putin for a third term."

The event organizers claim their "For Putin" movement was born out a wave of spontaneous grass-roots rallies across the Russian regions since late October, culminating in Wednesday's demonstration.

But media reports suggest that the movement, formally named the All-Russian Council of Initiative Groups to Support Putin, is funded by United Russia, whose election list is headed by the president.

The group's co-chairman Pavel Astakhov, a prominent lawyer and television personality, said it was natural that Wednesday's forum be held jointly with United Russia, "which shares our views and purposes.

Russian television showed Putin speaking from a fifty-metre-long platform extending into crowds of youths decked in baseball caps, T- shirts and flags that read "Putin's Victory is Russia's Victory!"

"The significance of the elections to the State Duma for the future of the country is that they will be held just a few months before the election of a new head of state," news agency Itar-tass quoted Putin as saying.

"If victory is achieved in the December, so will it be achieved in the presidential poll," the Kremlin leader added.

With just four months before the March presidential vote, Russian analysts see no obvious favourites among the possible successors and observers expect a surprise. It remains unclear what position Putin, who is constitutionally barred from a third consecutive term, might take when he leaves office in 2008.

The popularity of Putin - not only his policies - has given form to the idea that he should stay on as the de facto "national leader," an amorphous position from which he could maintain authority without holding political office.

Astakhov said 30 million signatures had already been gathered in a petition campaign calling for the president to officially declare himself as the country's "national leader."