In his annual televised question-and-answer session, the president said that the uncompromising stance of some parties at the six-nation talks -- involving North Korea, South Korea, Russia, Japan, China and the United States -- was one of the reasons North Korea held a nuclear test October 9, a move that provoked the UN Security Council to vote unanimously on sanctions against the reclusive Communist state.
"One of the reasons [of the nuclear test] was the failure of some parties at the talks to find a proper tone," Putin said.
The six-nation talks were launched in 2003 to persuade North Korea to give up its controversial nuclear program after Pyongyang withdrew from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The talks stalled last November over Pyongyang's demand that the U.S. lift sanctions imposed on it for its alleged involvement in counterfeiting and other illegal activities.
Russia advocates the resumption of talks, and has called on the United States and North Korea to take a more flexible approach to the standoff to end the deadlock.
Putin also commented on a sex scandal involving the Israeli president and on corruption charges leveled against the Israeli prime minister.
Israeli police said earlier that there was enough evidence to charge President Moshe Katsav with the rape and sexual harassment of several women.
Putin said the scandals show that a substantial part of Israeli society is unhappy with the Israeli leadership's actions in Lebanon.
"Many see the events [the Lebanese-Israeli conflict] as a defeat. That immediately triggered attacks against the president, the prime minister and the chief of the General Staff," he said.
Israel's military conflict with Hizbollah in northern Israel and southern Lebanon began July 12 when Hizbollah captured two Israeli soldiers and fired rockets into the country.
In the month of bloodshed that ensued, around 1,500 Lebanese civilians lost their lives to Israeli bombs, and much of the country's infrastructure was destroyed.
Hundreds of thousands of Lebanese remain homeless, and large areas of the country remain uninhabitable due to unexploded cluster bombs.
Addressing relations with Georgia, which have deteriorated in recent years, with Georgia accusing Russia of attempts to annex the country's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, Putin said Russia will consider international precedents in resolving conflicts involving the unrecognized republics, where Russian peacekeepers have been stationed since bloody clashes in the early 1990s.
"There are certain contradictions -- on the one hand, Russia supports the territorial integrity of Georgia and other countries. On the other hand, a nation has the right to self-determination. Therefore, we should take into account those contradictions and, of course, we will thoroughly consider international precedents, including that of Kosovo," Putin said.
Putin said that developing relations with members of the Commonwealth of Independent States -- a loose union of former Soviet republics -- was a priority of Russia's foreign policy. And he focused on problems in relations with Ukraine, particularly the presence of its Black Sea Fleet in Ukraine's Crimea.
The presence of Russia's fleet in Ukraine has been a source of contention between the ex-Soviet neighbors, who clashed earlier in the year over the ownership of lighthouses and Ukraine's demand for a hike in the rent Russia pays. Ukrainian media have speculated that future deals on the base will be linked to the price Russia asks for natural gas supplied to Ukraine.
"Russia is not striving for an early withdrawal of the fleet from Crimea," Putin said, adding that Moscow is ready for talks on extending Russia's presence there. "If need be, if asked by the Ukrainian people and the Ukrainian leadership, Russia can guarantee non-interference in [Ukraine's] internal affairs," he said, adding that it will have to be Ukraine's choice.
Under a bilateral agreement signed by the Russian and Ukrainian leaders in 1997, the fleet is to remain in Sevastopol until 2017, at an annual rent of $93 million.
Ukraine's and Russia's neighbor, Belarus, has been negotiating on a Union State with Russia since the two countries signed an agreement April 2, 1997. The project sets out to establish common economic, customs and political regulations, but negotiations stalled recently over a number of issues, including a Russian proposal to raise natural gas prices for Belarus.
Putin said: "First, we need to speak about economic integration. In this area, I consider the transition to a single currency to be the key issue [for establishing the union state]."
Referring to domestic problems, Putin denounced selective law enforcement on ethnic grounds by police as inadmissible, and denied accusations recently made against Russia that police are targeting Georgian nationals.
Following a diplomatic row with Georgia over the September arrest of four Russian officers in Tbilisi on espionage charges, Russian authorities cracked down on businesses believed to be connected to the ethnic Georgian mafia in Russia.
As a result, at least three large casinos in Moscow have been shut down, and scores of illegal immigrants from the South Caucasus state deported. The move caused a wave of criticism from Georgia and international human rights advocates.
Putin said Russian authorities deported 15,300 illegal immigrants from one of the former Soviet republics, about 13,400 people from another and only 5,000 illegal immigrants from Georgia.
"Consequently, talking about selective actions against Georgians is incorrect and untrue," the president said.
Russia has faced an inflow of illegal immigrants from struggling former Soviet republics since the collapse of the Soviet Union, resulting in the domination of immigrants from the Caucasus and Central Asia, as well as China and Vietnam, at food and clothes markets in Russia.
Related to ethnic criminal groups, they have brought with them an increase in crime and a wave of xenophobic sentiment in response.
Putin pledged the government will prepare proposals by late November to bring order to immigration procedures and to ensure access for domestic agricultural producers to food markets.
Responding to complaints against the local authorities from a resident of the northern Russian city of Kondopoga, Putin said: "We do not want instigators, but we do not want corrupt officials [in local governments] either. We must bring order to the trade sector, in food markets, to the immigration process, and in labor relations."
Kondopoga saw a wave of racial violence in early September after two Russians were killed in a restaurant brawl with Chechen immigrants. The local community accused authorities of failing to protect them or safeguard their interests, and of taking bribes from immigrants.
Speaking about the economy, the president was upbeat about a 6.6% GDP growth in the first nine months of the year, but said inflation was still too high.
The government reported Tuesday that 2006 inflation reached 7.4% as of October 16.
"We have managed to suppress inflation, but not to the levels we would like. Nevertheless, the trend exists and that is very important," Putin said.
Inflation is expected to be 9% in Russia this year, in line with the target set by the government earlier in the year.
Putin also criticized the prime minister for his failure to identify and punish officials responsible for a recent crisis on Russia's alcohol market following the introduction of new excise regulations for imported liquor.
Wines and hard liquor all but disappeared from licensed store shelves following the July 1 introduction of an automated system to create a uniform database on the production and movement of alcohol in Russia, and a ban on old excise stamps that temporarily stopped imports.
The move was designed as part of a campaign to squeeze potentially fatal bootleg and low-quality alcohol out of the market.
Several incidents of mass poisonings from bootleg liquor have occurred throughout Russia in the past few months.
The president, whose mandate expires in 2008, was asked about his successor, an issue long-debated in the media since his second term in office began in 2004.
Putin said he is not ready to name his successor, but may do so at a later date. "I have not said that I will give a name. In any case, I am not ready to do so now. But I am certainly reserving the right, like any Russian citizen, to choose [a successor] during the vote. And I do not think I must restrict my right to speak [on the matter] in the media."
Putin's supporters have proposed amending the Constitution to allow the immensely popular president to run for a third consecutive term, but Putin reiterated that he has no plans to run in 2008.
During the session, which lasted almost three hours, the head of state answered 56 questions, out of more than 2 million submitted, mostly on domestic policy. He selected 11 questions himself.
