AFP - Russian celebrities including TV presenters, writers and a rock star on Wednesday launched a Voters' League aimed at fighting fraud in March 4 polls where Vladimir Putin is seeking a third term.

"The idea was in the air," said television presenter Leonid Parfyonov, a journalist and former presenter of a popular television news show who was sacked from a national channel in 2004 after he defied censorship rules.

"It's clear to everyone that a new public mood has developed, a desire of people to vote consciously and to know where their vote goes."

Parfyonov was one of the celebrities to speak at mass rallies against vote fraud in parliamentary polls in Moscow in December, which saw many previously non-political figures take to the stage.

The new voters' initiative has been joined by the popular detective novelist Boris Akunin, fellow writer Lyudmila Ulitskaya and Yury Shevchuk, the iconic frontman of rock band DDT.

The founders urged members of the public to fight election fraud by signing up as election observers, sitting on election commissions and publicising incidents of vote-rigging on the Internet.

They also announced plans to take members on a trans-Siberian train ride to spread the word in cities across Russia next month.

The founders insisted the movement would not support any particular candidate in the forthcoming presidential polls, which Putin is expected to win despite falling approval ratings.

"We have no special sympathy with any of the political leaders. And we do not plan to support anyone directly," Parfyonov said.

"I decided to support this public movement because the people who are gathered here don't have political ambitions. That is the most important thing," said Shevchuk via video link from Saint Petersburg.

"A lot of people don't believe politicians any more."

The charismatic figurehead of the protest movement, blogger Alexei Navalny, was excluded because of his political goals, organisers said, citing his statements that he would consider standing as president.