LOUGH ERNE, June 19 (RAPSI) - Russia will draw up a national plan to deal with offshore tax havens, President Vladimir Putin said at news conference following the G8 summit in Northern Ireland.

"We will shortly adopt a law on disclosing end beneficiaries. The bill has passed the State Duma and is now being considered in the Federation Council. I will certainly sign it into law as soon as the upper house approves it," he said. 

"After that, we will propose a national plan to deal with offshore tax havens, just as the other G8 countries. This fight must proceed within reasonable limits, precluding any violations of current legal principles and norms," Putin added. 

He said that offshore tax havens are a problem not only for Russia, but for the global economy as a whole, and that the majority of tax havens are British dependencies and overseas territories. 

"I believe that the excessive use of offshore tax havens is seriously damaging the Russian economy, because we seldom know the end beneficiary and potential investors are wary of bringing major funds into the country as they do not understand who they will be dealing with," Putin said. "This is a serious problem for all countries. Russia has only just started on the path which many other countries have taken in the fight against offshore tax havens."

Putin said last week that Russia would use its G8 rotating presidency in 2014 to push for international regulation of offshore tax havens, following up on a campaign against offshore havens begun by British Prime Minister David Cameron, the current head of the G8.