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Russia's President Dmitry Medvedev MOSCOW - The Kremlin on Monday said it would replace the unpopular leader of the mainly Muslim province of Dagestan with the son of his predecessor, in its latest bid to curb an escalating Islamist insurgency.

Dagestan, like neighbouring Chechnya, is one of a patchwork of republics along Russia's southern flank that have seen a wave of attacks over the past year that President Dmitry Medvedev has called the country's worst internal political problem.

On Monday, Medvedev said he had proposed local lawmaker Magomedsalam Magomedov, 45, to head the region. An economics graduate and relative youngster he would pursue the Kremlin's plan of targeting the economic underpinnings of the violence.

But his appointment will also be seen a revival of the influence of his father, Magomedali Magomedov, who ruled from 1987 to 2006. Critics accused him of corruption but he was seen as successfully balancing clans to maintain a relative calm.

The younger Magomedov's nomination must be approved by Dagestan's parliament, a process widely seen as a formality.

The nomination marks the end of the four-year rule of Mukhu Aliyev, a popular choice when the Kremlin appointed him in 2006 as a relative neutral among the region's clans to overcome rampant corruption.

But his popularity plummeted as he failed to restrain clan leaders and efforts to reach out to moderate Islamists were met with an increase in violence.

The head of the police force of the regional capital Makhachkala was shot dead last Friday weeks after a suicide bomber killed at least seven policemen, one of a series of attacks on law-enforcement and government officials.

"The nomination shows the Kremlin was disappointed by current leader and decided to switch back to the previous clan," said Nikolai Petrov, an analyst with the Moscow Carnegie Centre.

Roughly the size of Scotland, Dagestan is a cauldron of ethnic groups and powerful clans which operate their own private armies and reach into politics, organised crime and militant Islamist groups. Last month Medvedev appointed former metals executive Alexander Khloponin to head the North Caucasus Federal District, which includes Dagestan, in a bid to target the corruption, unemployment and poverty that is seen to underpin the violence.