MOSCOW - Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday defended as legitimate the landslide victory of his party in an election criticised in Europe and denounced by international observers as unfair.

Putin, for whom Sunday's vote provided a mandate to continue shaping Russian politics after he steps down early next year, dismissed allegations of cheating when he met a group of workers outside Moscow.

Hailing United Russia's victory as a "legitimate" vote of public trust, he said: "It is now clear to me that Russians will never allow their country to develop along the destructive path seen in some other countries of the former Soviet Union."

Putin, who portrayed himself as a guarantor of stability in Russia during the campaign, was referring to past elections which set ex-Soviet neighbours, Ukraine and Georgia, on a pro-Western path after huge street protests.

The Central Election Commission said that with almost all votes counted, United Russia had won 64.1 percent of votes, nearly six times as many as the nearest challenger, the Communist party. Two smaller pro-Kremlin groupings took another 16 percent of the vote and pro-Western parties won no seats.

Russian officials were jubilant. "This is the result we were promised last Friday," laughed one government figure.

But allegations of vote-rigging and fraud alarmed the European Union, which said free speech had been violated in the run-up to the vote, and the United States, which urged Moscow to investigate the allegations.

The German government said the results were "neither free, fair nor democratic". Britain said the fact that most Western monitors had been prevented from observing the vote was "deeply disappointing".

The concerns of foul play could drive a new wedge between an increasingly assertive Moscow and the West. The atmosphere was sharpened on the eve of the election when Putin accused foreign governments of "poking their snotty noses" into Russia's affairs.

Opposition parties and international monitors said one-sided press coverage in the campaign, heavy use of government resources to campaign for pro-Kremlin parties, and numerous irregularities during voting had skewed the outcome.

The Communists, the liberal Union of Right Forces and opposition icon Garry Kasparov have all described the election, in separate comments, as the "dirtiest in Russian history".

Observers from the Council of Europe and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) described the election as "not fair" in a statement, saying it "failed to meet many ... commitments and standards for democratic elections".

The Communists, who won 11.6 percent of votes, said they would challenge the result in the courts.

But the head of Russia's Central Election Commission, Vladimir Churov, a former colleague of Putin, dismissed the allegations of fraud.

ENDORSEMENT FOR PUTIN

Financial market analysts said the result was broadly positive, even though it did not give clarity about the big issue of who would succeed Putin and what job the Kremlin chief would take next after he steps down from the presidency.

"For markets, this gives stability for another 12-18 months," said Chris Weafer, chief strategist at UralSib investment bank in Moscow.

Projections by the Electoral Commission showed pro-Kremlin parties would win about 393 of the 450 seats in the next State Duma, the lower house of parliament. That would be more than enough to allow them to change the constitution if they wished.

Putin has not said what he will do after his second term ends in May. Some political observers say he could seek a third term as president, although he has said he will not change the constitution to make this possible.

Opinion polls show Putin, a 55-year-old former KGB agent, is extremely popular after eight years in power. Voters credit him with restoring stability and national pride and like his tough nationalism and criticism of the West.

The international observers said "frequent abuse of administrative resources, media coverage strongly in favour of the ruling party and an election code whose cumulative effect hindered political pluralism" had tainted the election.

In Chechnya, a region in the North Caucasus which faces a separatist insurgency and is run by pro-Kremlin Ramzan Kadyrov, officials said a partial count showed United Russia had won 99.3 percent of the votes on a 99 percent turnout.

Europe's main ODIHR election watchdog -- seen in the West as a key yardstick of the fairness of an election -- decided not to monitor the election, citing obstruction by Russian authorities.

Investors were not overly concerned.

"Criticism over the handling of the election from foreign governments should be short-lived," Weafer commented.