KEY POINTS:
RIYADH - Russian President Vladimir Putin said today that Moscow would consider helping Saudi Arabia with a possible atomic energy programme and that he hoped to build stronger ties with Muslim countries.
"Russia is willing to look into cooperation opportunities in the area of atomic energy," Putin told Saudi businessmen, speaking through an Arabic interpreter.
Saudi Arabia and fellow Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) members Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, said in December they had ordered a study on a possible joint civil atomic programme.
The announcement by the GCC, a loose economic and political alliance, raised concern of a regional arms race with analysts saying the bloc wanted to match Iran's nuclear programme. Russia has helped Iran set up a nuclear power plant.
The United States suspects Iran's nuclear programme aims to develop weapons, a charge Tehran denies.
Putin later travelled on to Qatar and then on to Jordan where he was to hold talks with Jordan's King Abdullah and meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday in a clear show of Russia's regional ambitions.
Putin's trip to Saudi Arabia, the first by a Russian leader to the kingdom, marks growing ties between Saudi Arabia and Russia after a visit to Moscow in 2003 by Saudi's King Abdullah, then crown prince.
Riyadh revived its ties with Moscow in 1990 as the Soviet era ended. They first established diplomatic ties in the 1920s.
Putin accused the United States during a conference in Germany on Saturday of making the world a more dangerous place by pursuing policies aimed at making it the "one single master".
"Russia is keen to improve cooperation with the Islamic world," Putin told the businessmen.
Russia favours constructive engagement with Iran over its nuclear programme, pointing out that a tough line has failed to deter North Korea from developing nuclear weapons.
"Russia hopes to see peace and stability in the region," Putin said during the visit to Saudi Arabia, aimed at boosting trade between the world's top two oil producers.
Earlier yesterday, Putin said Russia will launch six Saudi-made information satellites for Saudi Arabia this year.
A senior official from King Abdulaziz Science and Technology City, a technology park in Riyadh, said five of the satellites would be for telecommunications and data transfer and the sixth will be for remote sensing.
The satellites will be launched from a base in Kazakhstan. Saudi Arabia already has several media and telecoms satellites.
The Russian leader said Saudi Arabia could benefit from Russia's expertise in gas exploration.
In 2000, Russia's LUKOIL and Saudi Aramco launched an 80-20 per cent joint venture called LUKSAR to explore and produce gas in an area of the Rub al-Khali desert.
Trade exchanges between Saudi Arabia and Russia rose 230 per cent from 2000 to 1.5 billion riyals ($591 million) in 2005, with Saudi exports accounting for a small fraction of them.
Saudi businessmen blamed high Russian customs duties, which they said amounted to up to 200 per cent, the absence of direct transport links and long procedures in Russian banks.
Putin invited Saudi banks to open 100-per cent-owned branches in Russia and said bilateral investments would rise after the Saudi Development Fund signed an agreement during his visit with two Russian state banks.
- REUTERS
