President Vladimir Putin said tonight Russia would support US military operations in Afghanistan by sending arms to the Afghan opposition, opening its air space for aid shipments and sharing intelligence.
Mr Putin said in a TV address that Moscow was also ready, if required, to take part in international search-and-rescue operations in Afghanistan.
Earlier, meeting senior parliamentarians behind closed doors, a liberal deputy said Mr Putin ruled out sending Russian troops into Afghanistan where the Soviet Union lost 15,000 men in a costly 10-year military intervention in the 1980s.
Mr Putin's policy statement, on the eve of a state visit to Germany, followed an hour-long conversation with US President George W Bush on Saturday night.
Referring to the attacks in the US as barbaric acts of terror, he said: "We are naturally now ready to make our contribution to the fight against terror."
Mr Putin unveiled a five-point strategy in which he said Russia would step up cooperation with the UN-recognised government in exile of Afghanistan by providing Northern Alliance forces with extra aid in the form of arms supplies and military equipment.
He said Russia would open its air space for overflights by planes carrying humanitarian supplies to regions where antiterrorist operations were being carried out.
He also pledged Russian intelligence services would pass on information they received about the whereabouts of terrorists in Afghanistan, their infrastructure and their training bases.
Mr Putin said his allies in ex-Soviet Central Asia supported Russia's position and they did not rule out making their airports available for the impending operations against Taliban-ruled Afghanistan.
The territories of Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgystan and Turkmenistan neighbour Afghanistan and their role in providing logistical help in military operations in Afghanistan could be crucial.