MOSCOW (AP) - Reaching to Russia for mediation amid the rising wave of violence in the Middle East, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Moscow on Friday for talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Welcoming Arafat at the start of their talks in the Kremlin, Putin said that an end to violence was essential for any diplomatic effort to succeed.

"Any meetings and talks would be useless if we fail to reduce the degree of confrontation and violence in the Middle East," Putin said, according to the Interfax news agency.

Russia is a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process with the United States, but the Kremlin has played a relatively minor role compared to Washington. Many observers were skeptical that Arafat's trip would help ease the spiraling confrontation.

But Arafat expressed hope, and said he was grateful to Putin for accepting his initiative to visit Moscow.

"We are sure that we will be able to find a solution that is successful," he told reporters after arriving at Moscow's Vnukovo airport. "We cannot forget that Russia is also responsible for the peace process and they have a critical role in this issue."

Arafat aide Saeb Erekat said in an interview published Friday in the daily Vremya Novostei that the Palestinian leader decided to visit Moscow now because "Israeli aggression is gaining speed and it's necessary to stop it."

"Russia is a co-sponsor of the peace process and we ask it to help push for our appeal for international protection in the United Nations' Security Council," Erekat said.

"Our second hope is for Russia to help find ways to implement the U.N. Security Council's decisions on the return of lands occupied by Israel in 1967."

Arafat's trip follows two months of fighting between Israelis and Palestinians, in which more than 260 people have been killed.

"The escalation of violence has entered a level where it can spread far beyond the borders of this volatile region," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said, according to the ITAR-Tass news agency. Ivanov said that Russia was working with both Israel and the Palestinians to find "an effective mechanism" to stop violence.

Israel has strongly opposed the Palestinians' push for a United Nations peacekeeping mission, and the parties' failure to define the status of Jerusalem has helped trigger the recent cycle of violence.

The Palestinians have accused the United States of favoring Israel and said they want a stronger Russian mediation effort to balance U.S. influence.

"The peace process has largely been undermined by the pro-Israeli position of the United States," Erekat said in the interview. "Russia is our friend, and stands for an independent Palestinian state with a capital in the eastern part of Jerusalem."

While strongly supporting the Palestinian bid for an independent state, Russia has said that it can be achieved only through dialogue with Israel. But despite Moscow's efforts to maintain an equal distance between the parties, its Soviet-era friendship with the Palestinians make many doubt its impartiality.

Russia's previous attempts at mediation have failed, underlining the fact that it has lost its Soviet-era leverage with Arafat. Russia's relatively small role in the peace process became evident last month when Moscow was left out of an emergency Middle East summit in Sharm el-Sheik, Egypt.