Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on Sunday ordered his government Sunday to shut down unreliable airlines after 43 people were killed in a chartered plane crash that wiped out a top hockey team.

The decision came as the nation mourned the latest in a string of deadly air accidents that earlier saw Medvedev request the removal from operations of Russia's older Soviet-era jets.

Syria's opposition leaders said they expected more support from Russia on Friday after President Dmitry Medvedev accused some of those protesting against Bashar Assad of being "terrorists".

The Russian upper house of parliament's foreign affairs chief Mikhail Margelov met a visiting Syrian delegation that included National Organization for Human Rights in Syria head Ammar Qurabi.

Russia on Thursday mourned the deaths of 43 people including top ice hockey players in a plane crash as President Dmitry Medvedev planned to visit the site of the disaster.

An aging Yak-42 plane carrying three-times Russian champion ice hockey team Lokomotiv Yaroslavl including several former and current NHL stars crashed on Wednesday near Yaroslavl, 300 kilometers northeast of Moscow.

A senior Russian officer in President Dmitry Medvedev's security entourage died in the Tajikistan capital Dushanbe ahead of a visit by the Kremlin chief, the Tajik interior ministry said Thursday.

The 38-year-old Vladimir Kuznetsov died of a heart attack in the Dushanbe's Hyatt Regency hotel on Wednesday, the ministry said, adding doctors have ruled out foul play.

The envoy of President Dmitry Medvedev for Africa will attend this week's conference for "Friends of Libya" in Paris, reports said Wednesday, in the first indication Russia will be represented.

"Mikhail Margelov is going to Paris for the meeting after receiving an invitation," a source in the Russian foreign ministry told Interfax.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said there were still two powers in Libya despite the success of rebels against the forces of Moammar Gadhafi, and called for talks to resolve the situation.

"Despite the successes of the rebels, Gadhafi and his supporters still have a certain influence and military potential. We want them to sit down at the negotiating table and reach agreements on future peace," he said.

North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Il on Wednesday promised Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, in rare talks, that his reclusive state was prepared to renounce nuclear testing and allow transit of a gas pipeline.

The meeting followed Kim's four-day train ride through Russia's Far East and Siberia, his third visit to the giant neighbor in the last decade but first since 2002.

North Korean leader Kim Jong Il's armored train arrived Tuesday in an eastern Siberian city for a summit with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

The North Korean leader stepped out of his train in Ulan-Ude, the capital of Buryatia, a Buddhist province near Lake Baikal, Russian news agencies reported. Kim's motorcade left town in the direction of Turka, a picturesque village on the shores of Baikal, the Russian ITAR-Tass news agencies reported.

North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il on Monday swept through Siberia aboard his special armoured train to the city of Ulan-Ude for talks with President Dmitry Medvedev later this week.

Kim is widely expected to meet Medvedev for a rare summit, possibly Tuesday or Wednesday.

North Korea's reclusive leader Kim Jong Il on Sunday received a red carpet welcome in the Amur region where he also toured a hydro power station ahead of talks with President Dmitry Medvedev.

Kim on Saturday kicked off a week-long secrecy-wrapped visit to the Russian Far East and Siberia, a rare trip out of a country battling isolation and hunger.