Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Moscow as part of a flurry of foreign trips aimed at drumming up support for his plan to declare an independent state with East Jerusalem as its capital.

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin told Arafat that Russia supports an independent Palestinian state but also believes negotiations should continue with Israel for a peace deal, ITAR-TASS reported.

Russian diplomats have also indicated they will try to discourage Arafat from making any unilateral moves that could inflame tensions between Israelis and Palestinians.

Arafat was also to meet Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov on Friday before leaving for Finland and Norway.

Israel strongly opposes Arafat’s plan to declare an independent state on Sept. 13, the deadline for a peace treaty between the two sides. The Jewish state regards the whole of Jerusalem as its "eternal" capital.

"Russia firmly intends to make its contribution to the search for compromises and mutually acceptable decisions [in an Israeli-Palestinian settlement]," Putin’s special envoy to the Middle East, Vasily Sredin, told Interfax before Arafat’s arrival.

Sredin sounded a cautious note on Arafat’s plan to declare independence irrespective of whether there is a peace deal.

"Russia supports and will support the legitimate right of the Palestinian people to create their own state," he said.

"But Russia has consistently said that all the possibilities for the peace process should be explored to the very end. ... The Palestinians’ state should grow out of negotiations.

"Only then can the stability and authority [of the new state] be guaranteed, and thereby the stability and security of all countries in the Middle East," Sredin said.

The issue of East Jerusalem, captured by Israel in the 1967 Middle East war and later annexed, proved the main stumbling block to a peace deal at last month’s Israeli-Palestinian talks at Camp David in the United States, which ended in failure.

"In our view, it is only possible to resolve the issue of Jerusalem’s fate through negotiations, in the context of defining the final status of the Palestinian territories. There is no other way," said Sredin, a deputy foreign minister.

Arafat, who last visited Moscow in November 1999, will be the first Arab leader to hold direct talks with Putin since the Russian president’s election in March.

The Palestinians have made clear they want Russia to play an active role in the peace process, of which it is a co-sponsor.

The Palestinian ambassador to Moscow, Khairi al-Oridi, told Interfax in an interview earlier last week that Arafat expected Russia to suggest "new initiatives" on the peace process.