MOSCOW - Russia is not yet ready to be led by a woman, President Boris Yeltsin said in an internet chat dismissing the suggestion that his daughter Tatyana could succeed him as Russian leader. Responding to a question from a couple in the United States, Yeltsin denied that he had ever mentioned his daughter Tatyana Dyachenko currently his public relations manager as a possible presidential candidate.

Our society is not quite ready for this. It's not just a question of my daughter, but the whole question of having a woman as president, Yeltsin said in the live 30-minute chat. Tatyana Dyachenko frequently appears alongside her father at official functions, and is believed to wield considerable influence in the Kremlin. She played a major role in his multi-million-dollar re-election campaign in 1996.

Yeltsin fielded questions on various topics from web surfers around the world in his debut internet chat. Russia has only two women cabinet ministers, and none of the frontrunners to succeed Yeltsin is a woman. (AFP)