European monitors can come 1 week earlier: Russia

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia offered on Tuesday to ease restrictions on Europe's main election watchdog by giving its monitors a week longer to monitor the March 2 presidential poll.

However, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) observer body rejected the offer and demanded to be allowed to enter the country earlier than the February 20 date suggested by Moscow.

The OSCE had said its observers needed to be in Russia three weeks before election day to observe the campaign's fairness, and had threatened to cancel their visit.

Russia originally told the OSCE its officials would be allowed in just three days before the vote, but said on Tuesday a February 20 arrival would allow time to observe the election, which President Vladimir Putin's chosen successor is expected to win easily.

"This makes for 10 days and we think that is a normal period for them to familiarize themselves with the situation, and to carry out their observations on the day of the vote and during the count," Elena Dubrovina, a member of Russia's Central Election Committee, told Reuters.

Curtis Budden, spokesman for the OSCE's election body ODIHR, which wants observers to be operational by February 18, said in response: "We reiterate we're willing to allow it to be the last date of the week we asked for, but not a week later."

Russia also increased the number of invited monitors to 75 from 70. An ODIHR spokesman declined to comment on this proposal.

The ODIHR pulled out of monitoring Russia's December 2 parliamentary election because it said restrictions prevented it from doing its job properly.

Russia accused the United States of putting pressure on the Warsaw-based organization to pull out of the December 2 election and has said ODIHR is trying to sabotage monitoring plans for the presidential vote.

Putin is stepping aside after eight years in power and has hand-picked First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev to be his successor.

Since the endorsement, Medvedev has received blanket media coverage on state television during regular administrative meetings and regional visits. He says he is too busy working to campaign properly.

Kremlin opponents accuse the authorities of running a biased election by disqualifying opposition candidates and allocating administrative resources in support of Medvedev.

European parliamentarians who monitored the December parliamentary election said the vote was characterized by unfairness.

(Reporting by Simon Shuster and Chris Baldwin, Writing by James Kilner; Editing by Christian Lowe and Andrew Dobbie)