MOSCOW, January 18 (RIA Novosti) - President Vladimir Putin met Thursday with the Russian ambassador to Georgia, who was recalled in September 2006 but will soon return to Tbilisi to resume work.

Putin said Alexander Kovalenko "heads for a country that can claim not only special relations but good-neighborliness and friendship with Russia."

The brief arrests of Russian Army officers on spying charges in Georgia last September aggravated the already strained relations between the former Soviet allies. Russia responded by suspending travel and mail links with the small Caucasus nation, clamped down on Georgians working in the country and recalled the ambassador and embassy staff with their families.

"Unfortunately, we have recently encountered well-known problems [in bilateral relations]," Putin said, adding that last September he met with Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and agreed on a number of steps to normalize relations.

"The first considerable step was made in December last year when we signed an agreement on Russian natural gas deliveries to Georgia," Putin said. "It is important that the deliveries will be made under market principles."

Russian natural gas monopoly Gazprom signed three contracts December 22, 2006 for the supply of 1.1 billion cubic meters of gas to Georgia in 2007 at $235 per 1,000 cubic meters.