His programme includes talks with the commander of the Saint Petersburg region's forces, General Valentin Borbryshev.

Russia's Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov said in May that Russia could help NATO in Afghanistan by providing intelligence and back-up services and search and rescue operations in the north, close to the Afghan-Tajik border.

But he has ruled out stationing troops on the ground in Afghanistan.

Some 11,000 Russian troops are helping to guard the border in the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan, which has a long common border with Afghanistan -- itself occupied by Soviet troops until they were driven out in the 1980s.

The NATO alliance is to take command of the International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan on August 11, in the 19-member Alliance's first operation outside its traditional European field of activities.

WAR.WIRE