Israeli officials criticized Russia on Friday over a planned new deal with Syria involving advanced anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles, the DPA press agency reports.Israeli media quoted Israeli officials as saying they had learned the sides are in the final stages of negotiations over the deal, under which Moscow would sell several thousand of the missiles to Damascus for hundreds of millions of dollars.

The advanced missiles are said to be capable of penetrating every modern Western tank.

Israel Radio quoted senior government officials as warning that the missiles sold by Russia would reach the Lebanese Hezbollah movement, which would use them to blow up Israeli tanks.

Israeli Vice Prime Minister Shimon Peres, of the ruling centrist Kadima party, called Friday for pressure on Russia to stop the sale, which he warned would encourage Syria to "turn to a road of war."

Former Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom, of the hardline opposition Likud party, accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of trying to return Russia to the era of the former Soviet Union and the international status it had at the time.

Putin "is playing with fire," he told Israel Radio