MOSCOW, September 11, 2008 (AFP) - President Dmitri Medvedev ordered the government and central bank on Thursday to boost funds flowing into strained Russian financial markets, news agencies reported.

'The government and the central bank must do everything they can to ensure that new financial resources enter the market,' Medvedev said. 'It is absolutely clear and this must be done.'

The main stock market index here has fallen by nearly half since a high point in May as investors worry about slower growth and a fall in oil prices.

Increasing tensions with the West, stoked further by Moscow's military intervention in Georgia last month, have also prompted foreign investors to take funds out.

Medvedev repeated that turbulence on the stock market was 'a temporary phenomenon which does not reflect the state of the economy in an objective way.

'The Russian stock market remains very promising for investments and serious investors understand that,' he said.