MOSCOW, May 23 (AFP) - A Kremlin power-struggle over Russia's next economy supremo is threatening an IMF loans-for-laws package vital to Moscow's efforts to avoid outright bankruptcy and rescue its ravaged economy, analysts warn. Premier Sergei Stepashin wants a respected deputy for the post, but arch Kremlin intriguer Boris Berezovsky is pushing his own candidate, whose very ties to the tycoon could hurt the prospects of the IMF package in parliament. Analysts said Berezovsky has used his influence with Tatyana Dyachenko, President Boris Yeltsin's younger daughter and head of the Kremlin's "kitchen politburo," to ensure his allies win key posts in the new cabinet. They include First Deputy Prime Minister Nikolai Aksyonenko and new Interior Minister Vladimir Rushailo. Another Berezovsky ally, Alexander Voloshin, heads the Kremlin administration. But Stepashin, anxious to avoid charges that he is a "puppet premier," wants Alexander Zhukov named economy chief and first deputy premier as a counter-weight to the Berezovsky cohorts. Zhukov is also backed by Anatoly Chubais, the head of the powerful UES electricity monopoly who is feted abroad as a key reformer but detested at home as the architect of Russia's scandal-tainted privatisation programme. Should he win the job Zhukov, a centrist who chairs the State Duma budget committee, would be tasked with piloting through the lower house of parliament a slate of unpopular IMF-approved laws needed to unlock the door to billions of dollars in fresh loans to Russia. The measures include higher alcohol and gasoline (petrol) tariffs, a delay in a much-publicized cut in value added tax, an easing of currency restrictions, and radical reform of the banking sector ravaged by the government's August 17 ruble devaluation and domestic debt default. On those measures hang 4.5 billion dollars in fresh credits over 18 months and billions more in associated loans from the World Bank and Japan. An IMF deal is also pivotal to Moscow's efforts to reschedule its foreign debt mountain and avoid a generalised default on 141 billion dollars in liabilities which would make Russia a pariah with international creditors. But the IMF package is deeply unpopular with a Communist-led Duma facing re-election in December and still smarting from its failure to impeach Yeltsin and swift confirmation of Stepashin in office under threat of dissolution. "If Mr Stepashin gains the image of a Berezovsky puppet, of course the willingness of parliament to cooperate will be much less," said Sergei Markov, director of Moscow's Institute of Political Studies. The presence of so many Berezovsky allies in the cabinet "will create a problem for the IMF package because the more influence Mr Berezovsky has, the less interest the Duma will have in cooperating with the government," he added. Economists fear any delays to the IMF deal would further postpone economic recovery and prolong the misery for millions of hard-pressed ordinary Russians, whose per capita income dropped by 27.6 percent and whose real wages slumped 38.5 percent in the 12 months to the end of April, according to official figures. Markov said Stepashin could seek to assert himself by undermining Berezovsky: "I would expect some Kremlin intrigues which will include corruption allegations concerning people in Berezovsky's entourage." Nevertheless the omens are not looking good for Stepashin, who agencies said could fly to Sochi on Monday to discuss his cabinet with Yeltsin who is holidaying in the Black Sea resort. The president has "not yet managed to persuade the president of the need for two first deputy premiers," commented Saturday the Nezavisimaya Gazeta, which is owned by Berezovsky. The respected business daily Kommersant said Yeltsin had broken the information blockade imposed by his tight-knit coterie of advisors by installing a telephone hotline to Chubais, who was due to return from the United States on Sunday. "The president is sent away -- so as not to meddle" in the cabinet's formation, the paper headlined Saturday's edition. "After his departure to Sochi there is a strong possibility that again all information to the president will be strictly filtered by his 'family circle,' which traditionally lobbies for Boris Berezovsky," it said.  