MOSCOW. Dec 11: Russia s leaders stepped up the pressure for a yes' vote to President Boris Yeltsin's new constitution on the final day of campaigning before voters give their verdict, reports Reuter. •

Television of Friday night rebroadcast a sombre address by Yeltsin telling voters that rejection of Russia's new basic law. in a referendum accompanied by parliamentary elections on Sunday, could plunge the coun try back into civil war.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin, due to leave hospital on Saturday after a kidney stone operation, appealed by radio to voters to support the constitution, saying

it would stabilise the process of reforms.

Chernomyrdin is not campaigning tn the polls and commands prestige as a neutral figure standing above the parties.

Only the communists have campaigned all-out against the constitution but many political parties have given It only lukewarm support and said It needs amending.

Patriarch Aleksiy of the Russian orthodox church said In a televisfon Interview voters should take part In the constitution vote, though he did not tell them which way to choose.

Yeltsin's camp is more worried about voter apathy than about an outright 'no' vote In

Sunday's poll. The constitution can only be approved If there Is a turnout of more than 50 per cent of the 107 million electors.

In the battle for seats in the new parliament, the pro-Yeltsin Russia's choice bloc changed tactics, turning up the heat on far-right candidate Vladimir Zhirinovsky, a charismatic figure who is promising to restore the Russian empire.

Mikhail Poltoranlan, who is close to Yeltsin, said Zhirinovsky could be president in the latter half of next year if his party did well In the elections, as many have predicted.

Russia's choice, led by economic reformer Yegor Gaidar, said the right-winger should no

longer be seen as a political clown.

If It has all been a Joke to you so far. then now It really is fighting, the Russia's choice statement said

Zhirinovsky closed his campaign with an address to around 4.000 supporters outside Moscow's Bolshoi theatre, predicting that leaders of other former Soviet republic would soon ask to be real sorbed Into Russia

Zhirinovsky came third behind Yeltsin and former Soviet Premier Nikolai Ryzhko In the Russian presidential election in 1991. but has never yet been In parliament.