(Recasts para 2, adds details, background in paras 2-10)

MOSCOW, October 1 (RIA Novosti) - The Russian president spoke out Monday against stricter sentences in Russia for economic crimes and corruption.

Vladimir Putin said laws have been toughened in the economic sphere in the past few years. "Further toughening of criminal responsibility could lead to arbitrariness, which means increasing corruption," he told a congress of the pro-presidential United Russia party.

Putin called corruption one of the main social and political problems. "Businessmen, investors, any normal person, need reliable guarantees of their rights. They need an independent and competent judiciary, honest officials and law enforcement officers," he said.

Putin said that despite measures taken so far - personnel shifts, criminal investigations - the situation has not changed. "Many people quite rightly say that no problem can be solved without a bribe," he said.

Russian Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov said September 28, Russia is set to adopt

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