MOSCOW - Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's ruling party called on the speaker of Russia's upper house of parliament to resign on Friday as tensions between pro-Kremlin parties rise ahead of the March 2012 presidential election.

Russia's pro-Kremlin parties are manoeuvring for position ahead of a parliamentary election in December and a decision on whether Putin or President Dmitry Medvedev will run for president in next year's election.

Federation Council Speaker Sergei Mironov, a staunch supporter of Putin, leads the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, which is the fourth-largest party in the 450-seat lower house of parliament, with 38 seats.

"We have a position on Mironov: he must renounce his mandate as senator," Boris Gryzlov, speaker of the lower house and chairman of the supreme council of the ruling United Russia party, said in a statement on its website www.edinros.ru.

Federation Council members are known as senators.

Mironov, who has a seat on Russia's powerful Security Council, stepped down as chairman of the Just Russia party last month but remains the formal leader of the party which competes with United Russia.