Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called on Monday for improved security and preventive police measures on Russia's rail network to prevent further terrorist attacks.

He said a bomb blast on a rail line in the Russian North Caucasus Republic of Dagestan on Monday appeared to be similar to Friday's terrorist attack on the Nevsky Express.

"As to the security on the railroads, we can apply only one effective method - preventive measures," Putin said at a meeting with First Deputy Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov.

The attempt to derail a train in Dagestan came two days after a bomb blast derailed several carriages of the Nevsky Express en route from Moscow to St. Petersburg. Twenty-six people died and at least 90 were injured, with two still unaccounted for.

The train in Dagestan, which was en route from West Siberia's Tyumen to Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, did not derail and no injuries were reported.

The Nevsky Express high-speed train was a target of a terrorist bombing in August 2007, when a similar derailment injured 60 people.

NOVO OGARYOVO, November 30 (RIA Novosti)