MOSCOW - Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat arrived in Moscow early Tuesday for talks with Russian officials on ways to seek a solution to months of violence between Israel and Palestinians.

The visit began in the wake of calls Monday by Russia's foreign minister for a multinational meeting to persuade the two sides to end hostilities and resume negotiations.

Israeli and Palestinian officials agreed to resume talks on security cooperation following a round of shuttle diplomacy by U.S. envoy William Burns, but it wasn't clear whether the talks would also include political discussions on ending eight months of violence.

Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said Monday that shuttle diplomacy seemed to be bringing few results.

"It is rather difficult for anybody to achieve it alone," Ivanov told a news conference. "So we are calling for holding an international meeting."

Still, Russia plans to continue its bilateral efforts, he said.

Russia co-sponsors the Mideast peace process along with the United States, but has played a far smaller role. It has developed friendly ties with Israel following decades of animosity, but largely lost its clout with the Palestinians and other Soviet-era allies in the Arab world it once armed against Israel.

Arafat was scheduled to meet Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin, other officials, and the head of the Russian Orthodox Church, Alexy II, Russian news agencies reported, citing Palestinian diplomats in Moscow.

Alexy's church is engaged in disputes with the New York-based Russian Orthodox Church Abroad over church properties in the West Bank. Clergy from the Church Abroad, which broke with the Moscow church in the 1920s over its support for the atheist Soviet government, have accused Arafat's officials of favoring the Moscow church in the disputes.