A Ru-La/ZrO2 catalyst was prepared by the precipitation method, in which Ru was an active component, La was a promoter and ZrO2 was a dispersant. Comparing with the catalyst prepared by the chemical reduction method, the Ru-La/ZrO2 exhibited higher activity and better selectivity. At 140 ℃ and hydrogen pressure of 5 MPa, the C6H10 selectivity reached 70% at a C6H6 conversion of 35% for a reaction time was 5 min and the total La/Ru loading was 10%. Textural parameters of the catalyst were obtained by physical adsorption, BET surface area and specific pore volume measurements. The catalyst sample gave a BET area of 41 m2/g and a specific pore volume of 1.1 cm3/g, and the most probable pore distribution was located at 5 to 10 nm. H2-TPR measurements showed that ruthenium oxide could be reduced to its metallic state at about 403 K. XRD determinations indicated that ruthenium and lanthanum were highly dispersed on the zirconia. A significant advantage of the Ru-La/ZrO2 catalyst is that it can be used directly in its unreduced state for the selective hydrogenation of benzene.