MOSCOW REGION, July 1 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin said Saturday that the government should raise real public sector wages 50% in three years.

"Wages must be raised 50%," he told members of the pro-Kremlin United Russia Party in his country residence outside Moscow. "The government must make sure that this task is fulfilled."

Putin added that he expected the 50% increase in real wages because nominal increase would be even higher - 100%.

The president's remarks came after Boris Gryzlov, parliamentary speaker and leader of the ruling United Russia party, said that the 2007 draft budget that the government had submitted to parliament, did not make it possible to increase public sector wages 50% in three years' time.