MOSCOW, February 7 (RIA Novosti) - The OSCE's election monitoring body deliberately set out to boycott Russia's March 2 presidential elections, the Foreign Ministry's spokesman said on Thursday.

The Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR) announced on Thursday that it would not monitor the polls due to restrictions imposed by Russian election authorities.

Another OSCE body, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, also said earlier on Thursday that it would not send its observers to Russia.

"The ODIHR flatly rejected a compromise without providing any clear explanations for its position," Mikhail Kamynin said. "We believe such actions are unacceptable."

Kamynin said the election monitoring group had no interest in reaching a compromise in its dispute with Russia on dates and observer numbers and accused it of failing to observe "basic ethical norms."

Russia had agreed to increase the observer numbers for the ODIHR mission and extend its timeframe for the organization's visit, by allowing a five-member advance team to arrive on February 6, another 20-member group to come on February 8 to monitor the campaign, and the other 50 monitors to arrive on February 27-28.

Kamynin said Moscow "deeply regretted" the refusal, also accusing the organization, which he said generally sends 10-20 experts to observe election campaigns one or two weeks ahead of polls, of political bias toward Russia.

ODIHR director Christian Strohal said in a statement: "We made every effort in good faith to deploy our mission... the Russian Federation has created limitations that are not conducive to undertaking election observation".

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe remains the only Western body planning to monitor next month's elections. President Vladimir Putin's handpicked successor, Dmitry Medvedev, is widely expected to win.

The Kremlin front-runner has the backing of 63 % of voters, state-run VTsIOM pollster said on Wednesday.

Putin, who enjoys widespread popularity in Russia, has said he will accept the post of prime minister if Medvedev becomes president.