Putin uses Asia-Pacific summit to look East

By Oleg Shchedrov

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a major nuclear energy deal with Australia on Friday and said he would use an Asia-Pacific summit in Sydney at the weekend to forge stronger links with the booming region.

Putin said he wanted to use the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit to re-establish a resurgent Russia as an integral part of Asia.

"Our task is to use APEC mechanisms to make Russia part of the regional integration," Putin said in an article published by Australian media on Friday.

Putin sealed a deal on Friday to buy Australian uranium to fuel Russia's civilian nuclear power plants. On Thursday, in Jakarta, he signed a $1 billion arms sale with Indonesia.

Putin, who wants Russia to host the 2012 APEC summit, said he wanted economic integration in Asia to help stop the decay of resource-rich but depressed areas east of the Urals.

The Kremlin has come out with an ambitious plan of diverting part of Russia's new wealth to upgrade infrastructure in Siberia and the Far East to attract investment.

"Closer ties with APEC naturally complements our own plans of economic development of Siberia and the Far East," Putin said in Sydney on Friday.

Russia, increasingly assertive in its foreign policy after years of stable economic growth, is looking for a new role in the world and sees itself as a balancing force between the old trans-Atlantic world and new power centers such as China.

This search is accompanied by growing strains between the Kremlin and the West on a series of issues, including painful disagreements over U.S. missile defense plans in Europe.

But Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush, who met in Sydney on Friday probably for the last time before the Kremlin leader steps down at March 2008 elections, focused on personal memories at a joint news conference rather than serious issues.

Bush recollected fishing with Putin in his father's seaside estate in New England earlier this year.

"I thought for a minute he (Putin) brought up Kennebunkport to remind me he was the only one who caught a fish," Bush said.

"Perhaps we should meet to fish in Siberia one day," Putin replied.

NUCLEAR DEAL

Russia, one of the world's leading arms traders with annual sales topping $5 billion in bumper years, wants to break into new markets and to rebuild its influence in Asia where Washington, and now increasingly China, have held sway in recent years.