Moscow is ablaze with rumours that Putin, 56, and the flexible 24-year-old Alina Kabaeva, who is now a member of the Russian parliament, have decided to tie the knot, The Daily Telegraph of Britain reported on Thursday.

The London daily quoted the Russian newspaper Moskovski Korrespondent as saying that the couple are to marry in mid-June, little more than a month after the Kremlin boss steps down as Russian president.

One website even claimed that the pair had been seen kissing in a Moscow restaurant, the report said.

Born in 1983 in Tashkent, Miss Kabaeva represented Russia at both the Sydney and Athens Olympic Games. According to the report, she has appeared in an action film and posed in daring photographs as a model.

Despite frantic talks of a wedding, apparently planned on June 15 in Putin's home town of St Petersburg, there was no comment from the Kremlin. Though the former KGB spy has not officially announced the separation from his 50-year-old wife, Ludmilla, he is reported to have split from her two months ago, the report said.