JERUSALEM - Vladimir Putin was Wednesday to become the first Russian president to visit Israel as a series of disputes between the two states threatened to hamstring Moscow's bid to rebuild its influence in the region.
Efforts to nurture Arab-Israeli peace, as well as Israel's concerns over Russian nuclear cooperation with Iran and weapon sales to Syria are expected to top the agenda during his two-day trip.
Putin was scheduled to meet Israel's President Moshe Katsav and Prime Minister Ariel Sharon on Thursday. On Friday, he will hold talks with Palestinian leader Mahmud Abbas in the West Bank city of Ramallah -- another historic first.
The president hopes his tour of the Middle East, which began with a state visit to Egypt, the first by a Kremlin leader in 40 years, will boost Russian influence in the region.
The days when Soviet support for Arab governments counteracted US backing for Israel are gone and today a weakened Russia is attempting a more pragmatic, even-handed approach, analysts say.
"It is a realistic policy. It is no longer about fighting for ideological dominance," Evgeny Satanovski, director of the Near East Institute in Moscow, wrote in the Vremya Novostei daily.
After talks with Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, Putin said Russia planned to organize an international conference in a bid to advance the peace process in the autumn.
Along with the European Union, the United Nations and Washington, Moscow drafted the roadmap peace plan, which has made little progress since its launch two years ago.
Israel, preparing to roll out the red carpet for Putin, said it was not opposed to the meeting in principle under the framework of the roadmap.
"We want to hear directly from him, what his idea is," said a foreign ministry spokesman.
But for all the warm talk, Putin is expected to hear strong complaints over Moscow's insistence on selling anti-aircraft defences to Syria.
According to the Israeli government the short-range Strelets missiles would not only arm an unfriendly neighbour, but could be smuggled to the Syrian-backed Lebanese militia Hezbollah.
"These missiles pose a grave danger to civil aviation because Syria, which supports terrorist organisations, could give them to the Lebanese Hezbollah for example," said a senior official in Sharon's office.
Moscow has repeatedly stressed its peaceful intentions. Yet Putin said the Strelets would "complicate" Israeli pilots' ability to fly at low-level over Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's presidential palace in Damascus, as in 2003.
More hard talks are due over Russian support for Iran's nuclear power development, which Israel, the United States and the European Union fear could mask a secret military programme.
An Iranian atomic arsenal would transform the balance of power in the region, where Israel is widely considered to be the sole, if undeclared, nuclear force.
Putin repeated that Moscow is "categorically against any kind of military nuclear programs in Iran".
One potential embarrassment appeared to have been averted, with the last-minute decision to delay the planned Moscow court verdict against Russian-Jewish Yukos oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.
Khodorkovsky's tax fraud trial has been an international public relations disaster for Putin, whom critics accuse of instigating a witch hunt against potential political rivals.
The verdict was meant to be announced on Wednesday, just hours before Putin touched down in Israel. The date was switched to May 16.
Israel has said that any extradition request for three other Russian-Jewish "oligarchs" wanted in Russia would be turned down.
Mass emigration from the Soviet Union and then Russia has brought about a million Russian Jews to Israel -- almost one sixth of the current population.
04/27/2005 14:09 GMT