Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says he expects a dirty political campaign in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, in which he expects to run.

Russian media said Putin dropped hints he would be a candidate in the poll but warned the campaign could be so dirty as to require him to "go and have a wash" when it's over.

"I shall go and have a wash, in the hygienic sense of the word but also in the political sense," Putin told a regional conference of the ruling United Russia Party in Yekaterinburg, central Russia, after he was asked what he would do immediately after the election, RIA Novosti news agency said.

"After all the campaigns that we will have to go through we will need to busy ourselves with hygiene," Putin said when a young man got up to ask him the question.

The news agency said the remark was Putin's cryptic hint on his possible participation in the elections.

Putin served two consecutive presidential terms from 2000 to 2008, but the Russian Constitution will make him eligible to run again for a new term in March 2012.

However, both Putin and President Dmitry Medvedev have said only one of them and not both will run in the election.

Putin's answer provoked laughter in the gathering, which also heard him outline plans for unprecedented spending by the energy sector on developing Russia's hydrocarbons resources.

He said domestic oil companies could be investing more than $300 billion on exploration, development and recovery of oil and modernization of refineries and various stages of prospecting and development by 2020.

However, he warned investors not to expect more incentives as the profitable energy sector did not need tax breaks while the government needed more tax revenues.

The energy industry is set to be a major battleground in the political campaign and also likely to be a major source of funding for the competing candidates as they emerge on the scene. Taxes on the gas industry are also set to rise.

Putin is banking on continued high approval ratings even as the government is seen to be more unpopular in recent surveys. In an opinion poll last month, the government's popularity fell to its lowest level since Putin became prime minister, but his own standing appeared unaffected.

Russian anger over the slow pace of economic reforms and growing perceptions of low career prospects were the cause, the Levada Center poll showed.

However, while Medvedev's approval ratings slipped 3 points to 66 percent from a previous poll in May, support for Putin remained unchanged at nearly 70 percent, the poll showed.

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