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Pro-Kremlin party needs at least 250 seats in 2007 vote - leader

MOSCOW, November 14 (RIA Novosti) - United Russia must gain a minimum of 250 seats in the 2007 parliamentary elections, the leader of the pro-Kremlin party said Tuesday.

"We are aiming to secure an overwhelming majority in the parliamentary elections in 2007, and 250 seats are a minimum that United Russia must obtain," said Boris Gryzlov, who is also speaker of the State Duma, parliament's lower house.

Russia's best-represented party, with 2,555 branches across the country and 999,546 members (as of March 6, 2006), United Russia secured a little over 37% of the popular vote in its landslide victory in the 2003 elections to the 450-seat Duma, and then captured all the chairmanships of the house's committees.