Moscow  - Russian President Vladimir Putin begins a 24-hour visit to Tripoli Wednesday for high-priority talks with Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi on energy contracts and arms sales.

Moscow intends to make Tripoli its "strategic ally" in North Africa, business daily Kommersant cited Russian diplomats as saying, and to this end Putin is impressively flanked on his visit by his foreign minister, finance minister and the CEOs of state-owned energy giant Gazprom, arms trader Rosboronexport and Russian Railways.

On the bargaining table is Libya's outstanding debt for Soviet-era arms sales, which Russia's Finance Ministry cites all told at 4.6 billion dollars.

This sum is contested by Tripoli but Gaddafi looks to have room to manoeuvre as Moscow seeks a future stake in Libya's highly promising oil sector and aims to revive lucrative Soviet-era arms sales.

Putin could finalize a 2.5-billion-dollar deal for the delivery of Russian anti-aircraft missiles, a dozen each of its Sukhoi Su-35 and Mikoyan MiG-29 SMT fighter jets, two helicopters and a number of ships, news agency Interfax quoted a defence industry source as saying on Monday.

Russian energy giant Gazprom, meanwhile, has lobbied for a share of gas exploration deals in Africa, notably in Algeria. Libya is considered the continent's fourth largest country in estimated gas reserves, and the gas monopoly entered three projects in Libya in 2007.

But analysts in Moscow on Wednesday criticized Russia's trip as late in coming since Gaddafi has improved diplomatic and economic relations with the West since the lifting of UN Security Council sanctions in 2004.

Putin's visit falls after Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko visited Libya earlier this month as part of a strategy to diversify energy supplies away from its former Soviet rulers, they said.