Medvedev calls for cuts in Russia's bureaucracy

"I ask you to prepare proposals on this and report on them to me," Medvedev told senior officials, adding a final decision would be made later.

In December, Medvedev ordered a 20 percent reduction in the 1.4 million-strong Interior Ministry, which handles the police, after a string of scandals. At the time, Medvedev called the cut "the beginning of a serious reform."

Half-way through his four-year presidential term, Medvedev has repeatedly promised to tackle graft and increase openness in society, although Kremlin critics say little has changed so far.

The Kremlin chief did not give a reason for the proposed cut to the country's bloated bureaucracy, though analysts have said Russia's endemic corruption is fuelled by having too many officials.

Medvedev said in the December decree that disciplinary problems and law-breaking by police officers had provoked widespread public concerns and were undermining the authority of the state, making the reform essential.

(Reporting by Guy Faulconbridge and Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Charles Dick)