MOSCOW - U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan traveled Tuesday to Moscow, where he and top Russian officials were expected to focus on efforts for settling deep-rooted conflicts from the Middle East to Russia's own war-shattered region of Chechnya.

Annan is scheduled to meet Putin at the Kremlin in the mid-afternoon before holding talks with Russia's new civilian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov. Russia has peacekeeping troops serving in Bosnia and Yugoslavia's breakaway Kosovo province.

On Wednesday, he will meet Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov.

Russia's Foreign Ministry said Putin and Annan would discuss a range of hot spots from the Middle East to Afghanistan, Iraq, Kosovo, Cyprus and Africa. Efforts to boost the United Nations' position and efficiency would also be raised, it added.

But Russian officials refused to be drawn on whether Moscow was preparing to add its voice to the growing chorus of support for a second Annan term as U.N. chief.

His marriage to Swedish artist and lawyer Nane Lagergren gives Annan an unusual link to Russia.

His wife is the niece of Raoul Wallenberg, the Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Hungarian Jews from Nazi death camps in World War Two but was later arrested by Soviet forces. Russia officially acknowledged for the first time last December that he had been a victim of Josef Stalin's purges.


BIG FIVE SUPPORT

The "Big Five" permanent members of the U.N. Security Council - Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States - can veto a candidacy, a power Washington used to deprive Boutros Boutros-Ghali of a second term in 1996.

Last month China, which usually leaves its position open until the last minute, backed Annan for a second term, citing broad African support and his performance in office since 1997.

France and the United States have already endorsed him and Britain is known to be a strong supporter of the secretary-general. Moscow is not expected to block his reappointment.

The low-key but personable career diplomat has avoided the spiky relationship with Washington that dogged his predecessor. He obtained a U.S. promise to pay Washington's backlog of dues to the cash-strapped organisation, while retaining wide support among developing and non-aligned states.

Some countries want the election, normally held at the end of the year, to be brought forward to June. After an initial vote in the 15-member Security Council, a vote is held in the 189-nation General Assembly. Annan announced he would seek a second term in March, saying he wanted to work for human rights and peace and combat poverty.