Israeli Foreign Minister Silvan Shalom today arrived in Russia for three days of talks focused on the halting Middle East peace process and Moscow's nuclear cooperation with Iran.

Shalom was expected to meet his Russian counterpart Igor Ivanov shortly after his arrival in Moscow at 08:30 GMT, his first visit to Russia.

The two diplomats were due to brief reporters after two hours of talks in the Russian foreign ministry's ornate guest mansion.

Russia is a co-sponsor of the Middle East peace process and has a keen interest in the latest initiatives' implementation as nearly one-sixth of Israel's population is made up of emigres from the former Soviet Union.

But Moscow has played only a supporting role in the drafting of the new peace "roadmap," along with the US, the European Union and the United Nations.

The roadmap has already run into stiff resistance from both Israeli and Palestinian radicals.

It calls for an end to violence as well as an Israeli withdrawal to pre-intifada lines. It also sees a total freeze of Israeli settlement activity and paves the way for the creation of an independent Palestinian state by 2005.

Moscow's top diplomats - regularly shuttled into the West Bank town of Ramallah for talks with the isolated Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat - have served as interlocutors between Palestinian and Israeli officials.

But Shalom arrives in Moscow with the nascent roadmap initiative already looking in tatters.

Washington was forced Sunday to reaffirm support for Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas despite his initial failure to reign in the three main militant Palestinian branches, who all took responsibility for a deadly weekend attack on Israeli soldiers at the Erez checkpoint in the Gaza Strip.

Meanwhile Prime Minister Ariel Sharon further fuelled Palestinian anger by delivering a hardline speech yesterday before a gathering of jeering fringe members of his own Likud party.

Sharon said he would not make any concessions to the Palestinians unless Abbas took "decisive action against terror".

He also said Palestinian refugees would never be allowed to enter the Jewish state.

The issue of the right of return of Palestinian refugees is one of the most sensitive ones of the peace process and was not due to be discussed until the very last stages of the new peace plan's implementation and Palestinian leaders quickly condemned Sharon's speech.

Moscow has said little about the latest tensions in the Middle East after initially hailing a summit in Jordan Wednesday between Sharon, Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmud Abbas and US President George W Bush.

The consultations over the Israeli-Palestinian conflict here Monday will also be clouded by Israeli misgivings over Russia's nuclear cooperation with Iran - a country viewed by Israel as one of its most dangerous enemies.

The subject has been discussed at all recent meetings between the two sides and Shalom said ahead of his visit here that Israel was growing restless with Moscow's refusal to halt construction of Iran's first nuclear power plant.

Shalom told the Izvestia daily last week that Iran could develop weapons of mass destruction within three years.

"This greatly concerns Israel and, I think, should concern Russia as well," Shalom said.

Russia last week vowed to push ahead with the Bushehr nuclear power plant's construction - but once again pushed back the date of its completion, this time until 2005.

The move appeared to be an indirect concession to US and Israeli concerns.

However a top foreign ministry spokesperson refused to admit today that Iran would be mentioned during the Shalom-Ivanov meeting and instead told ITAR-TASS that the talks would focus on the Middle East peace process and Iraq.

Ministry spokesperson Alexander Yakovenko said today's talks "once again confirm that relations between our two countries are becoming dynamic and intensive in character". – Sapa-AFP.