Russian oil will begin flowing through an Israeli pipeline in late November, the pipeline's director said Wednesday, signaling a new chapter in rapidly improving Israeli-Russian relations.

The announcement came on the same day Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon returned from a three day visit to Moscow, where he discussed political and trade ties, and the Middle East peace process with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The Russian oil shipments will move through the Eilat-Ashkelon Oil Pipeline Company, its director, Emmanuel Sakal, said Wednesday. He said they were earmarked for markets in the Far East, a major focus of Russia's developing oil export strategy.

Sakal would not say how large the shipments would be, which companies were providing them or give a dollar value on the deal.

Oil analyst Valery Nesterov of Troika Dialog in Moscow said Lukoil and Rosneft, which have production facilities in southern Russia, would be the likeliest candidates to exploit the facility.

About 80 percent of Russia's three million barrels per day of oil exports go to Europe, with about half of the remainder heading for the Far East.

However, Nesterov said, Russia is keen to increase its Asian oil sales.

"Russian oil companies are eying the Far East because the European markets are congested," he said.

The 158-mile (254 kilometer) Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline was constructed in the late 1960s by Israel and Iran to move Iranian oil to markets in Europe and the United States. It provided a convenient link between the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and obviated the need to use a costlier route around South Africa's Cape of Good Hope.

Since the Iranian revolution in 1979 ended Iranian-Israeli diplomatic and trade relations, the pipeline has been limited to moving relatively small amounts of Egyptian oil from fields in the Sinai Peninsula to northern Israel for refining. The pipeline can move about 1.1 million barrels of oil per day.

Sakal said over the past two years the company has completed a project to reverse the direction of the line from north to south. This would allow for shipments of Russian oil to reach the Mediterranean port of Ashkelon, be sent to Eilat and over the Red Sea toward the Far East, where demand is growing fastest.

Russia is considering a number of pipeline projects between yet untapped oil reserves in eastern Siberia and markets in South Korea, China and Japan, but those projects are still many years off.

Large portions of Russian oil exports to the Far East currently are moved by rail through Siberia.

A spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon said Israel and Russia have a common interest in exploiting the Eilat-Ashkelon pipeline.

"We want to make money from this (through transit fees) and the Russians want to send oil through it," said the spokesman, Raanan Gissin.

Transit fees typically run at about 10 cents a barrel, though pipeline length and tanker unloading and loading fees can affect the price.

Russia's relations with Israel have improved dramatically since the Soviet collapse, and Moscow has played a role in peace efforts as part of the international quartet also including the United States, the United Nations and the European Union.

The presence of one million Russian-speaking immigrants, one-sixth of Israel's population and a powerful political force, has become an important factor in bilateral relations.