Russian President Vladimir Putin continued his trip to Israel and the Palestinian territories Friday, meeting with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in the West Bank town of Ramallah. During a joint news conference with Abbas, Putin pledged his country's aid to the PA to help develop the economic infrastructure in the Gaza Strip once Israel completes in withdrawal later this summer.

'If we are waiting for President Abbas to fight terrorism, he cannot do it with the resources he has now,' Putin said. 'We will give the Palestinian Authority technical help by sending equipment, training people. We will give the Palestinian Authority helicopters and also communication equipment. We will bring Palestinian police for training.'

At the same joint news conference, Abbas continued to speak harshly towards any Palestinian militants who violate the cease fire agreement between the PA and Israel negotiated in Egypt in February.

'To anyone who attempts to sabotage such agreements, we in the Palestinian Authority are responsible for security,' Abbas said. 'We will confront them.'

Putin's visit to Ramallah was not without controversy. The Russian president visited the grave of the late PLO leader Yasser Arafat and laid a wreath at his grave. Israel considers Arafat a terrorist and a murderer. Arafat's failure to accept an Israeli offer of more than 95 percent of the West Bank including parts of Jerusalem at Camp David in 2000 signaled the end of peace negotiations and the beginning of the second intifadah, showing Arafat to be unable and/or unwilling to actually make peace with Israel. Still, Putin stood at attention and bowed his head in front of Arafat's grave.

President Abbas welcomed Putin's earlier call for an international summit on Mideast peace in Moscow, something both the United States and Israel labeled as 'premature.'

Abbas told reporters, 'We welcome the convening of an international peace conference. The conditions are right.' Palestinians hope that such a conference will increase pressure on Israel to make concessions.

Putin was pleased with his trip to the West Bank. He hopes it will be the beginning of Russia regaining some of the influence the former Soviet Union had in the region during the Cold War years.