Russian tycoon Mikhail Prokhorov said on Monday he was ready to become the leader of the pro-Kremlin Right Cause party.
He declined to comment further.
"Until a party congress has been called, until a relevant decision is made, I will not comment on this matter," Prokhorov said.
Party co-chairman Leonid Gozman said earlier on Monday talks were still in progress, but a decision should be made within the next few weeks.
"Mikhail Prokhorov's candidacy... would be quite natural, logical and effective," he said.
He declined to say whether Prokhorov was the only candidacy under consideration.
Gozman added that the party could also change its name.
The party suggested in April it was casting its net wider in the search for a leader after being turned down by Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin and First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov.
Gozman said earlier the party was seeking a federal official to lead the party in December's parliamentary elections, mentioning Kudrin and Shuvalov, as well as presidential aide Arkady Dvorkovich.
The Right Cause was founded in late 2008 as a merger of the liberal Union of Rightist Forces, Civic Power, and the Democratic Party of Russia and is widely seen as a Kremlin project to create a semblance of a multi-party political system in Russia.
Experts say the party may be preparing to back current President Dmitry Medvedev for re-election in the 2012 presidential elections.
MOSCOW, May 16 (RIA Novosti)
