UPDATE 1-Deripaska nets $4.5 bln from Russia rescue package

* UC RUSAL agrees $4.5 bln loan with Russian bank VEB

* Loan will repay syndicated loan to foreign lenders

* Deal will allow UC RUSAL to retain Norilsk Nickel stake

* Other Russian companies seeking similar assistance

(Adds details, background, quotes)

By Christopher Mangham and Robin Paxton

LONDON/MOSCOW, Oct 29 (Reuters) - Russia's richest man, Oleg Deripaska, became the first beneficiary of a Kremlin-backed rescue package on Wednesday when his flagship company secured a $4.5 billion loan needed to keep its stake in Norilsk Nickel.

United Company RUSAL agreed the loan with state-owned Vnesheconombank (VEB), entrusted with $50 billion by the Kremlin to bail out indebted Russian firms, in a deal that will repay a syndicated loan from foreign lenders, banking sources said. The loan is a welcome boost for Deripaska, who was forced to relinquish stakes in foreign companies as the global financial crisis slashed his net worth, and signals the Kremlin's intent to retain strategic assets in the hands of trusted businessmen.

"Russia will not want this block (in Norilsk Nickel) being diluted out into other hands," Rob Edwards, mining analyst at investment bank Renaissance Capital, said.

"It would take Russian control below 51 percent, and that's not acceptable."

Russian businessmen, including the oligarchs who built their billion-dollar fortunes in the chaotic 1990s, are queuing up for loans from VEB as the state-owned bank prepares to disburse the first $10 billion from its rescue package.

One of the banking sources told Reuters Loan Pricing Corp the terms of the VEB loan were agreed and the loan put into place on Wednesday. A UC RUSAL spokeswoman declined to comment.

UC RUSAL, the world's largest aluminium producer, is owned 57 percent by Deripaska. The company used the original $4.5 billion, two-year syndicated loan to back its April acquisition of 25 percent plus two shares in Norilsk Nickel (GMKN.MM).

The borrower was facing the threat of handing over the stake in Norilsk to creditors unless it managed to refinance, a banking source told Reuters Loan Pricing Corp this month.

The source added that RUSAL had failed to agree a $1.9 billion club loan with its relationship banks because of market turmoil and had applied for a government loan from VEB.