MOSCOW, June 14 (Xinhua) -- The Russian Government has proposed raising the retirement age of citizens despite public sentiments to the contrary.

The government proposes to gradually extend the age of retirement to 65 from 60 for men and to 63 from 55 for women from 2019, Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said at a government meeting Thursday broadcast live by the Russia-24 TV channel.

He said the government proposes to introduce a transition period from 2019 in order to reach step-by-step the retirement age of 65 for men in 2028 and 63 for women in 2034.

But women working for 40 years and men for 45 years will be allowed to retire two years earlier than the generally established retirement age.

However, Russia's independent market research company ROMIR published the results of a poll on Thursday, showing that 92 percent of the respondents did not support raising the retirement age.

More than half of the 1,500 people aged 18 years or older polled in cities and rural areas said men should retire at 60 and women at 55.

Also on Thursday, the Russian Labor Confederation, the country's second largest trade union, published a petition on the Internet, demanding to keep the current retirement age.

The petition had been signed by nearly 200,000 people by Thursday afternoon.?