This paper is aimed at studying the influence of the support nature and morphology on the performance of ruthenium catalysts for partial hydrogenation of benzene in liquid phase. Therefore, Al(2)O(3) and Nb(2)O(5) supports were employed with different values of particle diameter and superficial specific area. The catalysts were prepared through incipient impregnation from an aqueous solution of the RuCl(3)center dot xH(2)O precursor. After impregnation, the solids underwent a reduction treatment under H(2) flow at the temperature of 573 K. The solids were characterized through the techniques of particle size distribution, XRD, BET, SEM + EDX and TPR. The catalytic performances were evaluated within the hydrogenation of benzene in liquid phase, conducted at 373 K under constant pressure of 5.0 MPa of H(2). For the conditions employed, the results show that the support nature practically exerts no influence upon the selectivity of the intermediate product to the benzene -> cyclohexene -> cyclohexane reaction. However, the increase in the particle diameter or in the superficial specific area of the support decreases the yield of cyclohexene. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.