MOSCOW. Dec 26 (Interfax) - Russia will invite up to 400 international observers to monitor presidential elections to be held in March 2008, Central Elections Commission (CEC) member Igor Borisov said.

"Between 300 and 400 international observers will be invited to monitor the presidential elections in Russia, which corresponds with the number of those invited to the December 2 parliamentary elections," Borisov, who is responsible for the CEC's interaction with international observers, told Interfax on Wednesday.

"The list of those invited will be very much like the list of organizations invited to monitor the elections to the 5th State Duma," he said.

The invitations will be sent out between January 28 and 30, 2008, after the procedure for the registration of presidential candidates has been completed, he said.

CEC Chairman Vladimir Churov has notified his counterparts from election authorities in foreign countries on Russia's intention to invite international observers. In particular, such notifications have been sent to the election authorities of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, the United Kingdom, Hungary, Israel, Jordan, Spain, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Poland, the U.S., Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Ukraine, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, and the Secretariat of the Association of European Election Officials.

Borisov, who recently took part in monitoring parliamentary elections in Thailand as a member of an international observer mission, was also asked to comment on the way elections were held in that country. "The voting was arranged in line with that country's law and international principles of election organization," he said.

The elections in Thailand were monitored by 91 international observers, among whom there were no EU representatives, Borisov said. "The EU refused to monitor the elections because Thailand had not assumed extra obligations on arranging the monitoring process on which the European Union insisted," Borisov said, adding that, in his opinion, Thailand demonstrated its determination to oppose external pressure.