A new method is developed for calculating optical characteristics of axially symmetric particles. Electromagnetic fields are separated into two (axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric) parts. The light scattering problem is formed in the integral form and solved independently for each of the parts by using specially chosen scalar potentials. The potentials are expanded into series in spherical wave functions, and the expansion coefficients are calculated from solving the infinite systems of linear algebraic equations. The applicability of the proposed method for solving the problem of light scattering by Chebyshev particles, spheroids, and finite circular cylinders is briefly discussed, and some results of calculations performed for these particles are presented.