Putin tightens security measures
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|  VIDEO |
 Thousands of Russians rally against terrorism in Moscow.
 Footage taken by hostage takers inside the school gym.
 Political fallout over the attack hurts Putin.
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MOSCOW, Russia -- President Vladimir Putin has announced far-reaching measures to boost the Russian government's power to "fight against terrorism."
During an expanded meeting of his Cabinet on Monday, Putin criticized the anti-terrorist measures of Russian authorities for being inefficient and said the central government was key to preventing attacks on its citizens.
His comments came less than two weeks after the massacre of more than 330 hostages at the end of a 48-hour siege at a school in the southern Russian town of Beslan by rebels supporting independence for Chechnya.
"The organizers and perpetrators of the terror attack are aiming at the disintegration of the state, the breakup of Russia," Reuters quoted Putin as telling a special Cabinet meeting with regional governors and top security and military officials.
"The fight against terrorism should become a national task," Putin said.
Putin also said strong political parties must become one of the tools for mobilizing the entire society to conduct the fight against terrorism, The Associated Press reported.
He recommended changing elections to the country's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, to a purely proportional system, AP said.
That would eliminate the individual races that currently fill half the chamber's seats, and would further increase the clout of the pro-Kremlin faction and its allies that already enjoy an overwhelming majority.
Putin ordered the country's security services to increase their international cooperation, AP said, adding that the president wanted a new federal agency to coordinate the fight against terrorism.
"We need a single organization capable of not only dealing with terror attacks but also working to avert them, destroy criminals in their hideouts and, if necessary, abroad," Putin said.
He also proposed creating a new structure called the Public Chamber to engage non-governmental organizations and other groups in the fight against terrorism and strengthen public oversight of the government and law enforcement agencies.
Meanwhile, Putin laid the blame for recent violence on low living standards, poor education and unemployment in the North Caucasus, the Interfax news agency reported Monday.
"We have not achieved tangible results in the eradication of terrorism and its sources," Putin was quoted as saying.
Terrorism is rooted in "unemployment, insufficiently effective social and economic policy and lack of education," he said. "All that is breeding ground for extremism."
Putin added that the North Caucasus "is a key strategic region of Russia, but it is also a region where terrorists are strengthening their positions and a bridgehead for terrorism."
International terrorism "is especially active here. It is using social and economic shortcomings of the region in its interests," he said.
Unemployment is large-scale in Chechnya and Dagestan, and the living standards in the southern federal district are 1.5 times smaller than Russia's average. They are four times smaller in Ingushetia, Putin said.
The rate of uneducated people is very high in all republics of the North Caucasus, he said.
Interfax also said Putin announced he was forming a Special Federal Commission for the North Caucasus aimed at improving the economy of the region.
The commission will have broad powers to coordinate the work of federal agencies in the North Caucasus, and, in some cases, to coordinate the law-enforcement agencies' actions, Putin said.
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Associated Press contributed to this report.
