Former Russian premier Mikhail Kasyanov was nominated Saturday to run as a candidate in the March 2008 presidential elections, Echo Moskwy radio reported.

Kasyanov, 50, who had served as premier from 2000 to 2004 before falling into disfavour with President Vladimir Putin, was nominated at a congress of a citizens' voter initiative attended by some 700 people.

The nomination is the first step needed for the formal registration as a candidate.

Outside the congress hall venue, youthful pro-Kremlin demonstrators staged a protest against Kasyanov and charged that he was being financed by the United States, an allegation which Putin backers like to use to try to discredit opponents.

Kasyanov had previously belonged to the opposition alliance Other Russia, but quit it in a dispute with opposition figure, former world chess champion Garri Kasparov, over a joint candidate for the presidential elections.

Putin's party, United Russia, is due to name its nominee for the election on December 17.

Meanwhile the country's central election commision Saturday published the official results from the December 2 parliamentary elections, confirming the overwhelming win by United Russia.

The commission said United Russia won 64.3 per cent of the vote, giving it 315 of the 450 seats in the Duma, or more than two-thirds control.

Next came the Communist Party with 11.57 per cent and 57 seats, followed by the nationalist Liberal Democrats at 8.14 per cent and 40 seats.

The pro-Kremlin A Just Russia gained 7.74 per cent and 38 seats, just barely clearing the 7 per cent hurdle for representation in the lower house of parliament.

At the same time, the central election commission Saturday rejected complaints of election irregularities filed by the communists and the pro-Western Yabloko.