MOSCOW, July 31 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said here on Tuesday that Russia backed Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas as the legitimate Palestinian leader.

    "I want to assure you that we will support you as the legitimate leader of the Palestinian people," RIA Novosti news agency quoted Putin as saying at a meeting with the visiting head of the Palestinian National Authority.

    Abbas is in Moscow on a three-day working visit. His Fatah movement is battling the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas which now controls the West Bank.

    "I am sure that you will do everything in order to restore the unity of the Palestinian people," Putin was quoted as telling Abbas in the Kremlin.

    The visit was initially scheduled for June, but was postponed when Hamas seized control of the Gaza Strip in mid June.

    Russia will provide humanitarian aid to the Palestinian Authority and send 50 armored personnel carriers there, said the Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Denisov, adding that Russia will keep its ties with Hamas in a bid to promote dialogue.

    Abbas said he has agreed to talk with Hamas given situation returns to normal.

    "Dialogue with Hamas is possible if the situation returns to normal, to what it was before Hamas seized Gaza in June," he said.