After the Russian Central Electoral Commission announced the preliminary results of the parliamentary polls Tuesday morning, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin expressed hope that his cabinet and the new State Duma "will work jointly and efficiently."

He expressed this idea at a meeting with the leaders of the six blocs and movements, which were elected to the State Duma, lower house of the parliament during Sunday's elections: Gennady Zyuganov (Communist Party), Sergey Shoigu (Unity movement),Yevgeny Primakov (Fatherland-All Russia), Sergey Kiriyenko (the Union of Right-Wing Forces), Grigory Yavlinsky (Yabloko bloc) and Vladimir Zhirinovsky (Zhirinovsky's Bloc).

"The government and the former State Duma did much jointly over the past few months, and there are ample grounds to believe that this work will be continued with the new Duma," Putin told the deputies.

He noted that powers of former deputies are to expire when the new Duma starts its work. In this connection, he said, with a smile, "Well, there is still a chance to ratify the START-II (Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty-II)."

Putin congratulated the parties' leaders on their gain in the election campaign. He thanked voters, saying "Russian citizens,who made their choice together with us, elected those whom they trust."

The prime minister regards as "a strong asset" the fact that the State Duma will have 75 percent of new deputies. "I believe that the entire country is now in expectation for the start of the new State Duma's work," he stated.

Monday, Putin and the leaders of the six election coalitions that went through to the Duma exchanged views on a wide spectrum of issues. But the distribution of portfolios in the new Duma was not touched upon, Putin's spokesman Mikhail Kozhukhov told reporters.

"No one planned to reach any agreements on the distribution of portfolios in the Duma," Kozhukhov said, adding that the coalition leaders spoke about their idea of cooperation between the new Duma and the government, and of the first-priority legislative tasks.

The coalition leaders made concrete proposals on ways of solving social and economic problems. The sides also discussed the possibility of ratifying the START-II Treaty which, from the

government's point of view, is one of the current foreign-policy priorities, said the official.

According to the the latest statistics, the Russian Communist Party, as of 19:00 p.m. Moscow time (1600 GMT) Tuesday, won 24.29 percent of the votes in Sunday's parliamentary elections, followed by the Unity bloc with 23.24 percent.

The Fatherland-All-Russia election coalition came next with 13.12 percent; the Union of Right-Wing Forces with 8.60 percent, the Zhirinovsky Bloc with 6.04 percent and Yabloko with 5.98

percent of the votes.

So far, 98.03 percent of the ballot papers have been handled; 3.32 percent of the voters did not support anyone.