Company bosses also said they wanted to stop being known disparagingly as "oligarchs" and have equal rules for all.

Liberal politician Boris Nemtsov said Putin gave the assurance during talks in the Kremlin with 21 of Russia's key business leaders intended to calm tensions generated by legal proceedings launched against big companies.

"The president clearly and concisely said there would be no review of the outcome of privatisations," Nemtsov, who organised the Kremlin meeting, told reporters.

Calling into question the selloffs of the 1990s has been one of the key concerns of the business elite.

"The oligarchs are tired of being oligarchs," Nemtsov added. He was seconded by one leading businessman, Vladimir Potanin of the huge Interross holding. "I confirm that," he said.

Privatisations under former President Boris Yeltsin have been criticised for allowing corporate bosses, known as "oligarchs", to become wealthy by acquiring industries cheaply.

Putin, elected in March, has said that some insiders exploited connections to amass huge personal fortunes, like anglers "fishing in murky waters". He vowed to distance himself from the small group that built empires under Yeltsin.

Business grown fearful
Some business leaders have also grown fearful this year after pressure on media boss Vladimir Gusinsky and the launch of tax cases against car maker AvtoVAZ and oil giant LUKOIL. Prosecutors have dropped the Gusinsky proceedings.

Nemtsov said he was cautiously optimistic after the meeting that a new base had been laid for business relations in Russia. Potanin agreed that businesses wanted to act according to the law rather than benefit from inside contacts.

"Business has at last understood that everything we gain by exploiting various holes in the law is much less benefit than the loss we suffer because such methods exist," said Potanin, owner of the huge Norilsk Nickel, metals plant.

He said Russia was "moving to new rules and new understandings".

Despite the fine gloss put on the meeting by both sides, it was not clear whether recent antagonism would die down.

The Kremlin said in a statement that Putin and the business leaders had agreed to hold regular meetings and Potanin said the entrepreneurs now saw the authorities as allies.

Yet some of the most prominent members of the corporate elite who have been particularly at odds with Putin were not there, notably businessman Boris Berezovsky, oil and metals magnate Roman Abramovich and media baron Gusinsky.

Berezovsky, who was linked closely to Yeltsin, last week resigned as a member of the lower house of parliament in protest against Putin's attempts to curb the powers of regional leaders and what he called a "totally destructive" attack on business.

No grand conclusions
Despite Nemtsov's statements, the head of the Uralmash plant said no grand conclusions were drawn at the meeting. But Kakha Bendukidze, whose plant is at the foot of the Ural mountains, thousands of miles from Moscow, called the talks useful.

Putin was earlier shown on Russian television opening the meeting in a glittering hall by calling for a discussion of relations between business and the authorities, which he said had been "excessively politicised".

"I want to draw your attention to the fact that you built this state yourself, to a great degree through the political or semi-political structures under your control," he told the group, a roll call of Russia's business elite.

"So there is no point in blaming the reflection in the mirror. Let us get down to the point and be open about what is necessary to do to make our relationship in this field civilised and transparent."

The president, joined by Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov and Kremlin chief of staff Alexander Voloshin, gestured to business leaders and asked them to speak one by one, from right to left.

Nemtsov said Putin had answered four questions, addressing laws to reduce the tax burden on businesses and changes to customs rules. He also spoke about the chances of joining the World Trade Organisation.