MOSCOW, June 7. (RIA Novosti) - On Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin will hold talks with Sultan of Brunei Hassanal Bolkiah.

The leader of Brunei Darussalam, a tiny sultanate in the north of the island of Kalimantan, South-East Asia, yesterday arrived in Moscow with the first official visit. His first meeting with Mr. Putin had taken place in November 2000 in the capital of Brunei, Bandar Seri Begawan, on the sideline of the APEC summit.

The two leaders will focus on "analyzing the opportunities for more intensive use of the potential for trade and economic, investment, military and technical, scientific and humanitarian cooperation, as well as for creating the necessary legal framework," a source in the Kremlin reported.

He said that the promising areas of interaction were expected to be named in a joint Russian-Brunei statement to be adopted after the talks.

He was referring to cooperation in the oil and gas sector, the timber and timber processing industries, the steel industry, high technologies, agriculture, medicine and bio technologies, the source explained.

Apart from this, Mr. Putin and Mr. Bolkiah will discuss how to intensify their interaction in international affairs.

"Expansion of cooperation is helped by the fact that the parties have similar approaches to the creation of a new system of the world order that would ensure stability and security on the global and regional levels," the Kremlin official noted.

Russia and Brunei agree that it is necessary to strengthen the central coordinating role of the UN and the UN Security Council in maintaining peace, in understanding the importance of the strict compliance with the disarmament commitments, and in uniting efforts of the global community in fight against new threats and challenges, first of all against international terrorism, he said.

"Russia and Brunei are ready to establish cooperation within multilateral regional structures, such as the APEC Forum, the ASEAN forum for regional security and as part of Russia's interaction with the Organization of the Islamic Conference," the official said.

The Russian Foreign Ministry's official spokesman Alexander Yakovenko said that development of relations with Brunei was in line with Russia's foreign policy interests and had favorable prospects.

"Over a relatively short period after the establishment of diplomatic relations [less than 15 years] our countries have managed to develop friendly contacts. Foreign-policy agencies maintain a political dialog in form of regular consultations. The parties interact in the Asia-Pacific region and on the international stage as a whole," the diplomat said.