MOSCOW - Interim Afghan leader Hamid Karzai thanked Russia on Tuesday for its role in bringing peace to his country.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, who reoriented his foreign policy to back the U.S.-led campaign to oust Afghanistan's hardline Taliban, told Karzai Moscow wanted nothing more than to see an independent, prosperous Afghanistan.

The Afghan leader, who took office last December after an agreement was clinched in Bonn between Afghan ethnic groups, told Putin Afghanistan had sustained many tragedies since tens of thousands of Soviet troops poured into the country in 1979.

"From the moment of Soviet intervention to the intervention of others, 23 years have passed and all this time, the people have suffered," he said at the beginning of Kremlin talks.

"After the sufferings of war and drought, a new administration has been created under the Bonn agreement. Russia played a major role in the Bonn talks. I wish to express my gratitude for your help in....restoring peace in Afghanistan."

Putin said Russia had "no other goals in Afghanistan other than wanting to see Afghanistan independent, proseperous and neutral and friendly towards Russia. We need nothing else."

Putin threw his weight behind U.S. President George W. Bush's anti-terrorist campaign and allowed ex-Soviet Central Asian states to offer Washington airbases.

Russia sent no troops to take part in operations to oust the Taliban, but had long backed and armed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance, which now controls top portfolios in Karzai's government. With the Taliban routed, Moscow quickly sent teams offering medical and other help.

Karzai had earlier met Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov. Delegations signed 17 agreements covering aid to Afghanistan's infrastructure, exploitation of oil and gas reserves and transport and equipment.

Sources close to the Kremlin said Russia had already provided more than $12 million in aid and was focusing on how to rebuild some of the 140 industrial and agricultural sites built with Soviet help during the 1979-89 occupation of the country.

"Russia stands for a unified independent state with territory intact so that there can be no threat from its territory to its neighbours and so it may live alongside us in a spirit of peace and cooperation," Ivanov told a news conference.

Afghan Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah said Afghanistan had set down priorities for rebuilding the economy and was well aware "that time is required between the taking of a decision and its implementation".