Moscow ? The head of Russia’s upper house of parliament, speaking immediately after re-election to that post, declared Friday that the country’s constitution should be revised to allow President Vladimir Putin to serve a third consecutive term.

Putin, whose public support ratings are consistently above 70 percent, has repeatedly stated that he does not favor revising the constitution and that he plans to step down next spring. But he has never absolutely ruled out the possibility that he might allow the constitution to be changed and then run for a third term in an election scheduled for March 2008.

Changing the constitution, which currently limits the president to two consecutive four-year terms, could be achieved through approval by sufficiently large majorities of both houses of parliament and two-thirds of the country’s regional legislatures.