Russia is planning to send members of its security forces to train their counterparts in Afghanistan for the first time since the Soviet Union withdrew from the country in 1989, The Times has learnt.

At a meeting with President Karzai in Tajikistan last week President Medvedev offered to send 225 Russian police officers to help to train the Afghan National Police (ANP), according to Afghan officials. Mr Karzai, who met the Russian leader at a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation on Thursday, accepted his offer and the details are being discussed, the officials said.

The Afghan Interior Ministry confirmed that there was a verbal agreement, and an official at the Russian Embassy said that there could be more information later this week.

The number may be tiny compared with the 70,000 or so troops from Nato, the US and its allies now deployed in Afghanistan, some of whom are already training the ANP, but the agreement highlights Russia’s determination to reassert its influence in Central Asia, the Caucasus and other regions that it sees as lying within its strategic “sphere of influence”.

It comes amid mounting fears of a new Cold War after Russia’s invasion of Georgia and recognition of independence for the Georgian regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The Soviet Union invaded Afghanistan in 1979 and was forced to retreat ten years later by the Mujahidin resistance, which was funded and armed by the CIA. After the September 11 attacks Russia agreed to allow Nato forces to establish bases in the former Soviet Central Asian states of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.

The Kremlin has no interest in destabilising Afghanistan because it fears the spread of Islamic extremism and heroin into Central Asia and Russia, according to Russian and Western officials. However, Russian officials are wary of the US military presence in what they see as their backyard.

Russia’s Emergencies Ministry established a hospital in Kabul in late 2001 and Russian sappers helped to clear the Salang Tunnel, which connects northern and southern Afghanistan, of mines.

Russia has also offered to sell arms to the Afghan National Army but the Afghan Government decided to buy Nato standard weaponry.

Western officials claim to welcome Russia’s assistance in rebuilding Afghanistan but are unlikely to appreciate its help in public security, which has until now been the responsibility of Nato and US forces.

Russia’s proposal is all the more controversial because its police are renowned for their corruption and brutality and have been criticised publicly by Vladimir Putin, the President-turned-Prime Minister.

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