President Vladimir Putin promised help for rebuilding Palestinian security forces and boosting Middle East peacemaking on Friday during the first visit by a Russian leader to Palestinian territories.

Putin said Russia would deliver helicopters for President Mahmoud Abbas. But he made no mention of supplying the dozens of armored personnel carriers which the Palestinians had hoped for and which Israel opposed.

"We understand that the Palestinians, in order to enforce the law in this region, need to have all the necessary resources," Putin told a news conference in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

"We understand they can't do so using slingshots and stones. Israel understands this too."

Putin, on a Middle East tour that also took him to Israel and Egypt, is trying to revive the regional influence that Moscow lost after the Cold War.

In Ramallah, Putin placed a wreath at the tomb of Yasser Arafat, whose death last year and replacement by Abbas has buoyed hopes for peacemaking.

Abbas agreed a ceasefire with Israel in February.

Palestinians had hoped that Putin would promise to send 50 armored vehicles for security forces battered by a 4-1/2 year uprising with Israel as well as two transport helicopters.

But senior Israeli officials said any such offer would be unacceptable to the Jewish state, where Putin tried on Thursday to allay concerns over Russia's planned arms sales to neighboring Syria and help for Iran's nuclear program.

Russian ambitions

Russia, alongside the United States, United Nations and European Union, forms the Quartet of Middle East peace negotiators. Foreign ministers from the group are due to meet in Moscow next month.

Moscow has proposed various ways of speeding up the Middle East peace process and has often criticized Israel's handling of the Palestinian uprising.

Moscow's peacemaking proposals have met with little sympathy in Israel, which is happy to keep Washington as the main power broker in the region.

Russia dropped a plan to hold a peace conference in Moscow after it was criticized by Israel and the United States as premature. Palestinians had immediately backed the plan.

For decades, the Soviet Union, which severed relations with Israel in 1967, was the main sponsor of Palestinian groups fighting against Israel. Relations were restored in 1991 following the collapse of communism, a period that also saw mass migration of Jews from the Soviet Union to Israel.

Putin sought to soothe Israeli concerns on Thursday about its assistance for Israel's arch-foes Syria and Iran. Russia plans to sell missiles to Damascus, which Israel fears could end up in the hands of Syrian-backed Lebanese guerrillas.

Israel also opposes Russia's deal to supply nuclear fuel to Iran. Israel, believed to have a nuclear arsenal, accuses Iran of trying to build atomic bombs. Tehran denies this.

In Jerusalem and Ramallah, Putin reiterated that Russia was opposed to Iran obtaining nuclear weapons.

(Chinadaily.com via agencies April 30, 2005)