(Recasts lead, adds paragraphs 4, 5)

MOSCOW, March 7 (RIA Novosti) - Russia's high death rate is a social problem, the country's president said Wednesday.

Addressing a meeting of the council overseeing priority national projects and demographic policy, Vladimir Putin said: "This country loses over 700,000 people annually. Losing people of working age - men account for 80% of these - remains a tough problem," he said.

Although cardiovascular diseases and such "unnatural factors" as drug and alcohol abuse are major causes, life safety problems also persist, the Russian leader said.

In his annual address to the nation in May, President Vladimir Putin pledged financial incentives to women with larger families. As a result, Russia's parliament passed a maternity incentive bill in December 2006 to provide payouts to women who give birth to more than one child.

Russia is suffering a severe demographic crisis. Its population has been in steady decline, with the United Nations predicting

Pages: [1] 2