BELEK, Turkey (Reuters) - Tanned and relaxed in the cosy surroundings of his team's hotel on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, Russia manager Guus Hiddink allows himself the luxury of day-dreaming as he looks ahead to the Euro 2008 finals.

In June, the Dutchman hopes to repeat with his new team the magic he created with South Korea six years ago.

Then, as the icing on the cake, he wants to be invited by Russian President Vladimir Putin to the Kremlin.

"Russia is a big country, a superpower, and of course to meet such a powerful leader as Putin is a big honour for any person, especially a foreigner like myself," Hiddink told Reuters in an interview at the end of his team's training camp at this resort last week.

"It would be a great honour for me," he added.

"So if he invites our team to the Kremlin it would be great. But we don't want to come empty-handed, we want to bring some (silverware) with us as if to say 'Hey, look we did well. We made your country proud'."

After being told that none of his predecessors in the Russian national soccer team had had the honour of meeting Putin, Hiddink smiled: "Well, it means our team has a chance to be the first."

Putin did meet Italian Giovanni Caprara, coach of the Russian women's national volleyball team, in November 2006 after he led them to their first world title in 16 years.

LITTLE INTEREST

Kremlin insiders say Putin, who has a black belt in judo and also enjoys Alpine skiing and horse riding, has little interest in Russia's most popular sport and has never attended a soccer game in public in his eight years in office.

Putin will step down in May because the Russian constitution prevents him from seeking a third consecutive term but he is widely expected to retain an influential role in government.

Only two clubs, Terek Grozny from the troubled region of Chechnya and CSKA Moscow, have been invited to the Kremlin in recent years.

CSKA received an invitation after winning the UEFA Cup in 2005 when they became the first Russian club to claim the trophy.

The choice of Terek was highly political, after they lifted the 2004 Russian Cup, to show the world that Chechnya was firmly a part of Russia after two wars with separatists since the mid-1990s that cost thousands of lives and levelled major towns.

Hiddink masterminded South Korea's dream run to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup they co-hosted with Japan.

They shocked some of the favourites, such as Italy and Spain, to finish fourth -- the best showing by an Asian team in World Cup history.

South Korean President Kim Dae-jung presented Hiddink with the country's top sports medal and honorary citizenship.

"The whole four weeks was like a dream," said Hiddink, who has also had spells coaching his native Netherlands and Australia.

"No one expected it. I'm very grateful to the people of South Korea not only for the way they treated me but how they supported the team for the entire tournament.

"Of course, it would be very difficult to repeat such a performance now with Russia, but nothing is impossible. You just have to believe in yourselves and not fear anybody."

PROUD RECORD

Hiddink has never failed to guide his teams past the first round at any major tournament in which he has taken part, starting with Euro '96 in England when he led the Dutch to the last eight before losing to France in a penalty shoot-out.

Two years later, he steered the Netherlands to the World Cup semi-finals only to suffer the same fate at the hands of Brazil.

He repeated his magic with South Korea in 2002 then, four years later, led rank outsiders Australia to the World Cup second round where they bowed out to eventual champions Italy after a hotly disputed last-minute penalty.

If he achieves a similar feat this year it would break a two-decade frustrating spell for the Russians, who have not advanced past the group stage since 1988 when, as the Soviet Union, they reached the European Championship final.

"Of course, no one treats us as favourites but that's even better," said the 61-year-old Dutchman as his eyes lit up.

"It suits me just fine. Actually, I prefer it that way. Then we can surprise a few people."

Just like he did in 2002.

(Editing by Clare Fallon)