BARVIKHA, Russia - President Dmitry Medvedev signalled Tuesday support for easing political restrictions imposed by his predecessor, Vladimir Putin, that were slammed in the West as a rollback of democracy.

In a meeting with top bosses of the pro-Kremlin Just Russia party, Medvedev described the current threshold of seven percent voter support that any party must win to gain representation in parliament as a "circumstantial" rule.

"This does not mean it will be forever," he said in the meeting at his residence outside Moscow. "In certain circumstances, we can move to lower this barrier. The question of when is a separate matter and should be discussed."

His comments were the latest sign that the 43-year-old president, Putin's hand-picked successor, was beginning to take an increasingly independent and liberal line from his stern mentor.

The seven-percent threshold was one of several political reforms pushed by Putin in the wake of the 2004 Beslan hostage massacre that he said were needed to preserve the integrity of the state but that critics blasted as oppressive.

Medvedev first suggested easing the rules in his state of the nation address last November.

Last month, the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, passed amendments to the election law under which a small number of seats would be granted to parties who garner between five percent and seven percent of the vote.

In the last parliamentary elections in Russia, in December 2007, only four political parties -- none of them opposed to Putin -- surpassed the seven-percent threshold.