MOSCOW -- The administration of President Vladimir Putin, who faces elections in March 2004, has told gas monopoly Gazprom to postpone its sale of national channel NTV until after the vote, Vedemosti business Daily reported Wednesday, AFP said.

The decision ensures that all three main television networks in Russia remain effectively in state hands.

"The sale will not take place until after the 2004 presidential elections. It's a political decision which was taken at the very top," an official at Gazprom told the newspaper, speaking under condition of anonymity.

Gazprom, which is 38-percent owned by the Russian state, took over the private NTV network last year along with other assets owned by exiled media tycoon Vladimir Gusinsky, whose Media-Most group owed several hundred million dollars to the gas giant.

The takeover sparked accusations from Western governments and human rights defenders in Russia that the Kremlin was acting to silence the independent media.

NTV television, which at the time was the only nationwide independent network and won respect for its hard-hitting news coverage, immediately began to tone down its criticism of government policy.

Gazprom several months ago had announced it would sell its activities in the mass media grouped under Gazprom-Media by the end of the year.

Officially, the company justifies the postponement of the sale on financial grounds, since the total value of the assets are estimated at 364 million dollars while Gazprom has lent more than 630 million dollars to its subsidiary.

"We decided after evaluating the assets that we cannot sell them at the right price. We are considering a recapitalisation and we have no dates in mind yet for the sale," Gazprom-Media Chairman Alexander Dybal told Vedemosti.

But independent observers pointed out that NTV, which is the most widely-watched channel in Russia after the state-controlled ORT and RTR networks, was too precious an instrument of propaganda to give up.