The US, EU and human rights groups have condemned jail sentences imposed on three members of Russian punk band Pussy Riot over an anti-Vladimir Putin protest in a Moscow cathedral.

The women were sentenced to two years in prison for hooliganism.

The US and EU said the sentences were disproportionate. Amnesty International said they must be overturned.

Russia's Orthodox Church said the protest was a "blasphemy" but also appealed for clemency for the women.

The sentences were handed down in Moscow by Judge Marina Syrova, who found Maria Alyokhina, 24, Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, 22, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, 29, guilty of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred.

She said they had "crudely undermined social order".

The women said their protest, in the Christ the Saviour Cathedral inFebruary, was directed at the Orthodox Church leader's support for Mr Putin, who two weeks later was elected for a third term as Russia's president.