Israel must be allowed to act freely against Iran, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Thursday during a visit to Sochi, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss security coordination in Syria.

The two leaders have met more than a dozen times in recent years and the countries' militaries have been working to avoid accidental clashes in Syria, where Israel says it has carried out hundreds of strikes against Iranian targets to stop Tehran establishing a permanent military presence there.

"Security coordination between us is always important, but it is especially important now, since in the past month there has been a serious increase in attempts by Iran to hit Israel from Syria and to place there precision missiles to use against us," Netanyahu said at the start of the meeting.