Abstract
A regular semigroup S is called V-regular if for any elements a, b ∈ S and any inverse (ab)′ of ab, there exists an inverse a′ of a and an inverse b′ of b such that (ab)′ = b′a′. A characterization of a V-regular semigroup is given in terms of its partial band of idempotents. The strongly V-regular semigroups form a subclass of the class of V-regular semigroups which may be characterized in terms of their biordered set of idempotents. It is shown that the class of strongly V-regular semigroups comprises the elementary rectangular bands of inverse semigroups (including the completely simple semigroups), a special class of orthodox semigroups (including the inverse semigroups), the strongly regular Baer semigroups (including the semigroups that are the multiplicative semigroup of a von Neumann regular ring), the full transformation semigroup on a set, and the semigroup of all partial transformations on a set.