"It is in no one's interest to see Russia become edgy or to withdraw inward," she said during her visit to Russia's second largest city at the invitation of her Russian counterpart Sergei Ivanov.

"When there are periods of edginess, it is France's task to lift some ambiguities and to play this role of facilitator by relying on old ties which we may have but also on personal relations based on trust," she said.

"This serves the interest of Europe and of balanced international relations," she added.

Mixing working sessions with sight-seeing in Ivanov's hometown, Alliot-Marie, who is on a three-day visit to Russia, took pains to highlight the special relationship between Paris and Moscow.

Her talks with Ivanov also touched on the fight against global terrorism and regional crises ahead of Friday's meeting in Moscow of the Franco-Russian security cooperation council.

Alliot-Marie's visit to Saint-Petersburg returned a visit her Russian counterpart made last year to Saint-Jean-de-Luz, the French Basque town of which she is mayor.

Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov warned those in the West who criticize political reforms pushed by President Vladimir Putin as a rollback of democracy in Russia must understand that the world needs a strong Russia.

Testifying at her Senate confirmation hearing Tuesday, US Secretary of State nominee Condoleezza Rice, an expert on Russian affairs, warned the Kremlin against taking steps seen as curbing democracy.

Washington hoped to work closely with Moscow on common problems, she said.

"As we do so, we will continue to press the case for democracy, and we will continue to make clear that the protection of democracy in Russia is vital to the future of US-Russia relations," Rice said.

"Russia seems to have become edgy" particularly over Ukraine, where it openly supported a losing candidate in that country's disputed presidential election won by pro-West Viktor Yushchenko and over neighboring Georgia, another former Soviet republic with which it has strained ties, Alliot-Marie's aides said.

French Foreign Minister Michel Barnier, speaking ahead of Friday's security meeting in Moscow expressed hope that "Russia will be respected and that attention will be paid to the stability of this region."

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