"We should put pressure on the G8 to promote the interests of civil society in Russia," Alexander Auzan, head of the Social Contract Institute, a human rights organisation, told a Moscow press conference.

Ella Pamfilova, who chairs a committee of rights groups that advises President Vladimir Putin, said NGOs should take advantage of Russia's G8 chairmanship "to give a push to the development of civil society and rehabilitate the notion of democracy, which has become discredited in Russia in recent years."

Next year will be the first time Russia has chaired the G8 since it won membership in 1997 of the group. A date for the G8 summit, to take place in Saint Petersburg, has still to be announced.

On Wednesday, Russia's lower house of parliament, the Duma, is to vote on a controversial bill on NGOs that critics have portrayed as an attempt to clamp down on Western influence.

Putin has already called for the draft legislation to be revised, following a wave of criticism by rights organisations, the Council of Europe and the United States.

"The problem of the defence of human rights is not on the agenda of the G8 summit," said the head of the Centre for Development of Democracy and Human Rights, Yuri Dzhibladze.

In particular he accused the West of turning a blind eye to rights abuses in Russia's war-torn province of Chechnya.

Igor Chestin of the Russian branch of the WWF environment group suggested that a summit of international NGOs could take place in Russia ahead of the G8 meeting.

In addition to Russia, the G8 comprises Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States.

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