St.Petersburg Governor Anatoly Yakovlev, who is also a leader of the All Russia movement, has called for the government and the two houses of the Russian parliament to be moved to St.Petersburg.

Yakovlev suggested that the president and his administration remain in Moscow, while parliament and the government return to what had been the Russian capital from 1712 to 1918.

"The Federation Council (upper house), the State Duma (lower house), and the Russian government would work in St.Petersburg no less efficiently than they do in Moscow," Yakovlev told Tass.He said the central Tavrichesky Palace, which hosted the First Russian Duma, might be home to the Federation Council, while other organs of power could be placed in other historical buildings.

"Peter the Great, who built the Russian capital in St.Petersburg, was undoubtedly right," he said, adding Russia had gathered most potential and showed the entire world its power and grandeur" when St.Petersburg was its main city. He also said jokingly that St.Petersburg's architectural monuments and cold climate would cool off the hot heads of some politicians.Yakovlev said he loves his city and that his alliance with Moscow Mayor Yuri Luzhkov, which had taken shape in forming the Fatherland/All Russia pre-election bloc, was only "an image- making and political action".

The St.Petersburg head said he had no presidential aspirations. St.Petersburg was build by Peter the Great in 1703 and was Russia's capital until 1918, when the Bolshevik government moved to Moscow, the pre-Peter capital of the Russian state.

MOSCOW, (1999) August 31 (Itar-Tass)