A top Kremlin official said on January 2 that Prime Minister Vladimir Putin will win the upcoming presidential race in March.

Igor Shabdurasulov, first deputy chief of the presidential staff, told a press conference that Putin's defeat is impossible, although the Kremlin must be ready for any outcome of the balloting, which was moved up by three months following the abrupt resignation of President Boris Yeltsin.

Yeltsin stepped down Friday, six months ahead of the expiration of his term, and named Putin the acting president.

Shabdurasulov said Putin's potential rivals have no chance of winning the presidential elections.

"This is very close to the truth," the Interfax news agency quoted him as saying.

Putin, who took office as prime minister last August, saw his approval rate skyrocketing amid a military campaign against rebels in the breakaway republic of Chechnya.

The offensive was launched in September following armed Chechen incursions into neighboring Daghestan and several terrorist bombings, also blamed on Chechen militants, that killed over 300

people in Moscow and two other cities.

Putin, a 47-year old former KGB intelligence officer and Russian security chief, appeals to popular longing for a strong leader capable of pulling Russia out of its economic morass and

stamping out widespread corruption.

Other presidential hopefuls include former Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov, Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, Communist leader Gennady Zyuganov, provincial governor Alexander Lebed, liberal Yabloko leader Grigory Yavlinsky, and ultra-nationalist Liberal Democratic Party leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky.