MOSCOW ? British Prime Minister David Cameron insisted Monday that Russia and Britain can overcome sharp differences in their relations ? including the 2006 poisoning death of a Kremlin critic in London ? to seal new trading ties and help promote world stability in the wake of the Arab Spring.
Cameron was in Moscow for the first visit to Russia's capital by a British leader in six years to meet President Dmitry Medvedev, and also to hold the first talks by any British official with Prime Minister Vladimir Putin in more than four years.
Ties between Britain and Russia soured over the 2006 poisoning death of dissident ex-Russian security agent Alexander Litvinenko in London. Litvinenko made a deathbed statement accusing Putin of authorizing his killing.
Russia has repeatedly refused British requests for the extradition of the chief suspect in the case, ex-KGB agent Andrei Lugovoi, who denies involvement.
Cameron planned to raise the issue ? and to call for wider reforms to Russia's criminal justice system ? but said his visit would be focused on developing new businesses opportunities.
Since taking office in May 2010, Cameron has looked to developing economies to help kick-start Britain's sluggish growth, leading large delegations of business executives on visits to India and China.
"I accept that Britain and Russia have had a difficult relationship for some time," Cameron told students in a speech at Moscow State University. "We should be candid about the areas where we still disagree. But I want to make the case for a new approach based on cooperation."
Cameron was being accompanied by about 20 business leaders, including oil company BP's chief executive Bob Dudley and Royal Dutch Shell CEO Peter Voser, and planned to seal new deals worth 215 million pounds ($340 million) ? which would create 500 new jobs in Britain ? during talks.
British companies are also likely to win new rights to bid for contracts on Russian-led civil nuclear projects, while Cameron's government will support Russia's efforts to join the World Trade Organization.
"We can settle for the status quo, where in too many areas we are still in danger of working against each other and therefore both losing out, or we can take another path that is open to us ? to cooperate, work together and therefore both win," Cameron said.
In an interview with Britain's Sky News television, Lugovoi urged Britain to focus on trade, and accept that demands for him to face trial are unlikely to be met.
"I am sure that this is the dream of Cameron ? don't speak about me. It looks idiotic," Lugovoi said. "For the last four years the first question from every British politician has been about me, despite the fact that Britain is the biggest investor in the Russian economy."
But Cameron warned that a major upgrade of trading ties would need Russia to make progress on reforming its criminal justice system.
Last month, BP complained that a Moscow office had been illegally raided after Russian bailiffs accompanied by armed policemen searched its premises in connection with a lawsuit.
Foreign businesses "need to know that they can go to a court confident that a contract will be enforced objectively and that their assets and premises won't be unlawfully taken away from them," Cameron said.
Hinting at the Litvinenko case, Cameron called on Russia to do more to ensure its courts were impartial. "The accused has a right to a fair trial. The victim and their family have a right to justice," Cameron said in his speech.
Though Britain ended intelligence cooperation with Russia as a result of Litvinenko's killing, Cameron claimed that Moscow and London could work together to tackle the threat of terrorism ? and must continue to show unity on efforts to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons.
"We need to unite against the threat of terrorism and the warped ideology that underpins it. We need to work together with our international partners to prevent countries like Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons," Cameron said.
Cameron also urged Russia to work closely with Britain and other United Nations Security Council members to help ensure stability in the Middle East and North Africa.
Russia has so far refused to support efforts by Britain, the United States and France to pass a U.N. resolution authorizing sanctions against the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Foreign Secretary William Hague, who was also accompanying Cameron, said talks Monday would focus on efforts aimed at persuading Russia to support a tougher U.N. stance on Syria.
"The view I have come to is that the stability of corrupt and violently repressive dictatorships in Middle Eastern states like Gadhafi's in Libya is false stability," Cameron said.
"The transition to democracy may well have its difficulties and dangers, but it is the best long term path to peaceful progress and is a powerful alternative to the poisonous narrative of Islamist extremism," he said.
Dudley was joining the trip following the collapse earlier this year of a planned Arctic oil deal with state-owned energy company Rosneft ? an agreement that had been seen as critical to the company's recovery from the Gulf of Mexico spill.
Rosneft last month agreed a partnership with U.S. company Exxon Mobil to develop offshore oil fields in the Russian Arctic, one of the world's last regions with major untapped hydrocarbon deposits. In return, Rosneft has the option to acquire parts of oil projects in Texas and the Gulf of Mexico.
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