Moscow - A Russian Navy battalion left for Venezuela on Monday, a navy spokesman said, in a show of force in US-patrolled waters that could exacerbate a tense security standoff with Washington.

Last week, two nuclear-capable Russian bombers flew military exercises over the US fleet in the Caribbean at the invitation of US foe Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, who plans to visit Moscow next week.

There has been no such deployment - including nuclear-powered cruiser Peter the Great which is outfitted with torpedoes, 500 missiles and anti-submarine aircraft - in Western waters since Cold War days.

Joint Russo-Venezuelan naval exercises are set for mid November.

Analysts view the manoeuvres, although planned a year ago, as a reprisal for the presence of US warships off Russia's Black Sea coast to deliver aid to Georgia, and US plans to build a missile defence shield in eastern Europe.

The Kremlin, isolated over the recent crisis in Georgia, has strengthened ties with so-called non-aligned states who oppose US policy in South America and has threatened to sell more advanced weapons to Syria, which is blacklisted by Washington.

Such a policy is in effect a move to restore Cold War alliances and a throwback to the geopolitical ideological battles of those years.

Russian Navy spokesman Igor Dygalo said the cruiser Peter the Great was accompanied by three other ships that set off from the Northern Fleet's base of Severomorsk on Monday.

Independent newspaper Nezavesimaya Gazeta said nuclear submarines carrying nuclear missiles would escort the ships. There was no official confirmation of this.

State-controlled daily Izvestia on Monday published a map of the squadron's route, including a stop at the Syrian port of Tartus, which passes right by the US Navy's Mediterranean fleet.

Moscow's intensifying relations with Venezuela and Syria appeared to be a response to Washington's security policy.

Premier Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials have charged that US aid shipments to Georgia were an excuse for an arms build-up in the Black Sea and have threatened to forge closer military ties with US opponents Cuba and Syria over US missile shield plans. (dpa)