MOSCOW - Hamas political chief Khaled Meshal on Monday praised Russia's efforts to end a Western aid embargo on the Palestinian administration during a visit to Moscow intended to win support for a new unity government.

Moscow later reiterated its support for the unity government which Hamas and the rival Fatah group of Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas agreed to form earlier this month.

Russia is the only member of the Middle East Quartet, which is made up of the United Nations, the United States and the European Union, which has maintained ties with Hamas since the Islamist group took over the Palestinian government last year.

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"Our goal is to encourage the international community to start cooperation with the Palestinian government and pressure Israel to recognize the Palestinian state's right to exist," RIA news agency quoted Meshal as saying on arrival.

"We value Russia's position towards lifting the blockade from which the Palestinian people suffer. We also value Russia's special position in the issues of the Middle East settlement."

Russia shares the Quartet's demands on Hamas to recognize Israel, renounce violence and accept interim peace deals.

But Moscow wants Hamas to be engaged in dialogue rather than isolated and has been critical of the Western aid embargo introduced after the Hamas election victory last year.

"Russia confirmed its position aimed at achieving intra-Palestinian unity in accordance with criteria set by the Quartet of Middle East mediators, and the resumption of a peace dialogue between the Palestinians and Israel based on international law," Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a
statement after Meshal met a deputy foreign minister.

The Quartet failed to work out a common stand on the unity government at a meeting last week. Russia wants the Quartet to back the coalition deal. The Western governments have adopted a wait-and-see approach.

Meshal, who visited Egypt before Moscow, said he had Arab backing for the unity government.

"There is an Arab consensus on Mecca's agreement which we have accepted as a base for forming a unity government," he told Al Jazeera television.

Meshal was likely to try to use Moscow as the channel of communication to other Quartet leaders, said Vitaly Naumkin, head of Russia's Arab Research Centre.

"Meshal needs Russia's assistance first and foremost in unblocking the international aid," he told the Vesti-24 news channel.

A visit by Meshal to Moscow last year, defying a Western boycott on talks with Hamas, provoked protests from Israel and Washington.

Naumkin said this time the mood was different. "The West now views our contacts as useful," he said.

Meshal was due to meet Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Tuesday. It was not clear whether Meshal would meet President Vladimir Putin, who held talks with Abbas in Jordan earlier this month and discussed regional issues with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert by telephone last week.