MOSCOW, Sept 13 (AFP) - President Vladimir Putin stepped up Kremlin control over Russia's regions Monday and called for moves to improve security in the north Caucasus after the Beslan school hostage tragedy.
"We cannot speak, much less think, about this without tears," Putin said in an address that was aired repeatedly on state controlled television.
"But suffering is not enough -- we must act," Putin said.
In a meeting with more than 500 regional officials from throughout Russia, Putin called for a new system of selecting regional leaders that would give the Kremlin a direct and powerful say in the matter.
Putin also called for a new system of proportional representation for filling all 450 seats in the State Duma, a break from the present system under which half are filled proportionately and half by direct majority vote.
The Russian leader said he would submit draft legislation on his proposed changes to the Duma by year's end and pledged that any changes would be made in accordance with the Russian constitution.
In a wide-ranging address to the meeting, Putin also called for a "radical renewal" of policies in the southern republic of North Ossetia, where poor social conditions provided fertile ground for "international terrorism."
He was speaking 10 days after hundreds of children and parents died in a school in the town of Beslan in North Ossetia after being held by more than 30 militants for three days.
"The northern Caucasus are an important strategic region for Russia, but it is also a region where the position of terrorists is strengthening," Putin said.
He said unemployment was significantly higher and health care standards and other social benefits significantly lower in the north Caucasus than elsewhere in Russia, creating ripe conditions for extremists.
"The fight against terrorism demands a radical renewal of the entire policy in the north Caucasus," the Russian leader said.
Putin announced the creation of a new federal commission to be headed by Dmitry Kozak, the government's chief of staff, whose main objective would be to find ways to improve the standard of living in the north Caucasus.
The school hostage-taking, blamed alternately on Chechen rebels and "international terrorism," was the third major extremist attack in Russia in the space of a week and Putin vowed immediately afterward to tighten national security.
In the earlier attacks, two passenger jets were downed almost simultaneously and a suicide bomber blew herself up outside a Moscow metro station.
The president repeated warnings from other senior officials in recent days that Russia would go after "terrorists" wherever it found them.
"Terrorists must be eliminated directly in their lairs, and if the situation requires it they must be attacked, including abroad," Putin said.
"The fight against terror is our shared duty and it requires mobilization of all the resources of the state," he added.
Putin covered a range of topics in his remarks to the assembly Monday, but his assertion that the Kremlin should have a say in the selection of regional executive officials marked an important political departure from past practice.
Political experts warned however that the changes proposed by Putin could weaken democratic mechanisms for holding public officials accountable and also lead to excessive centralization of political power.
"Putin has planned to centralize power and tighten the screws from the time he came to power," commented Yuri Korgunyuk of the INDEM think-tank in Moscow.
"Terrorism is the pretext. The goal is to place the entire power apparatus under his personal control."
Speaking on Russia's Echo Moskvy radio station, another noted analyst, Aleksei Makarkin, said the changes proposed by Putin for selection of regional leaders would alter the face of regional politics in the country.
"The problem is that if up to now governors have been answerable to voters who could refuse to give them trust and not reelect them, now their accountability will be of an administrative nature before federal authorities," he said.
At least one well-known politician, opposition Communist Party chief Gennady Zyuganov, immediately rejected Putin's initiative.
"Elections to the Duma by party ballots may be held only when the political system becomes stable and parties come up with practical programs for leading the country out of crisis," Zyuganov was quoted by Interfax as saying.