Interfax - Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia has announced his plans to visit Syria and Lebanon in November this year.

"According to a tradition, I, as a newly elected Patriarch, will have to make a visit to the Patriarchate of Antioch. My visit to Syria and Lebanon is planned for November this year," Patriarch Kirill said at a meeting with Lebanese President Michel Suleiman at the Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow.

The Patriarch said he was looking forward to the visit to Lebanon, as he had been to that country several times and knows it well.

"I am prepared to do my best to facilitate the development of Lebanon's relations with Russia, Ukraine, Byelorussia and other countries making up the canonical territory of the Russian Orthodox Church," Patriarch Kirill said.

The Patriarch has called for developing Russia's pilgrim ties with Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East.

"Hundreds of thousands of Russians come to the Middle East for pilgrimage. This number could reach a million in the near future," he said.

The Patriarch regretted that Lebanon is not part of these pilgrimage tours and called for making consolidated efforts to make Lebanese holy sites accessible to believers from Russia.

He thanked the Lebanese authorities for kind treatment of Russians living in that country and expressed his special gratitude to the Beirut municipality for allotting a plot of land for a Russian cemetery.

The Patriarch also said that, although "not everything is well" in the Middle East now, the Russian Orthodox Church is making significant efforts to help the local population overcome the existing conflicts, divisions, and problems.