Regional governor Sergei Darkin "has voiced concern that most television companies in the region are broadcasting large numbers of US-made films promoting the rule of force and the invincibility of the US army," an official told AFP.

Darkin ordered local media chiefs earlier this week to take action "in the sphere of propaganda and anti-propaganda during the Iraqi crisis," the chief of the administration's media relations department Igor Surshkov said.

Officials estimate that some 60 percent of local broadcasts -- including around 1,200 Hollywood movies a year and scores of US-made cartoons -- is pro-American, "all of which is providing grist to America's ideological mill," Surshkov said.

Local media are receiving seminars on "information security during the Iraqi crisis" and are being instructed to assume "personal responsibility in preserving Russia's information freedom," he said.

Nationwide opinion polls indicate that around 90 percent of Russians are opposed to the US-led campaign in Iraq.

Russia, sided with France and Germany in opposing the action, arguing that the crisis over disarming Iraq could have been resolved by peaceful means.

SPACE.WIRE