Putin in Jordan, pushes Russian regional ambitions

AMMAN, Feb 13 (Reuters) President Vladimir Putin today said there was a growing consensus for a new international conference on the West Asia, on a trip that has highlighted differences in US and Russian policies to the region.

Putin will meet Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Jordan today on the last leg of a West Asia tour of three US allies that is demonstrating Russia's regional ambitions.

After talks with Jordan's King Abdullah, Putin pressed his plan for a regional conference to unblock the Israeli-Palestinian peace process. His proposal would engage Syria in the talks, a prospect likely to unsettle Washington.

''We confirm our call for a broad international conference in the West Asia and we see the number of supporters of this proposal growing,'' Putin said in a statement he read to reporters as he stood alongside King Abdullah.

''But it should be well prepared and the agenda to include the Palestinian and the Lebanese Syrian tracks.'' Analysts say Moscow favours a broader and more comprehensive approach to solving problems in the West Asia over a US drive to first secure a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian crisis before dealing with other regional problems.

Putin arrived in the Middly East a day after an address to an international security conference in Munich in which he accused the United States of trying to impose its will on the world by military force.

King Abdullah said Russia -- which is on a drive to convert its growing economic power into diplomatic muscle around the world -- had an important role to play in the peace process.

ACCELERATED DIPLOMACY ''President Putin and I agreed that negotiations towards the establishment of a viable, independent Palestinian state should be accelerated,'' he said.

Russia is a member of the West Asia Quartet that includes the United Nations, the European Union and the United States.

Putin has stressed the differences between Russia and US policies on the West Asia throughout his tour, which earlier took in Saudi Arabia and Qatar.

''We are striving to create a fairer world order based on principles of equality,'' Putin told a business forum in Riyadh.

''This is a course Russia conducts everywhere including the spacious Arabian Peninsula and the Gulf,'' he added. ''Time has shown our views find support in Arab and other Muslim states.'' A communique released after Putin's meeting with King Abdullah focussed on economic cooperation between the two countries.

It said they signed agreements on encouraging investment and two commercial deals: one between Russia's AvtoVAZ car maker and a Jordanian carmaker, and another on the possible assembly in Jordan of the Russian KA-226 general-purpose helicopters.

Earlier on his tour Putin invited Qatar, which has the second biggest natural gas reserves, to step up cooperation in world markets. Although Qatar has rejected the idea of forming an OPEC-like gas cartel, which has alarmed the West, Putin returned to it in Doha.

''I've said (a cartel) is an interesting proposal,'' he told a news conference. ''But it's a different question whether we need a cartel and whether we will set up an organisation like this.'' ''But we of course need to coordinate our actions,'' Putin added.

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