The lower house of the Russian parliament, the Duma, has approved a measure requiring that officials declare their assets before starting to work for the government.

The bill, which is designed to combat corruption, still needs to be approved by the parliament's upper chamber.

Correspondents say Russian government employees are poorly paid, with the president officially earning about five-hundred-and-fifty-dollars a month.

The Prosecutor General, Yuri Skuratov, said last month that low salaries make officials easy to tempt with bribes.