For catalysts comprised of Pt supported onto dispersed complex fluorite-like oxides (ceria doped by Pr, Gd, Sm, or CeO2-ZrO2 doped by La, Gd or Pr), the effects of the oxygen mobility in supports and Pt dispersion on the performance in methane selective oxidation into syngas at short contact times were elucidated using combination of kinetic and spectroscopic methods. While in general any simple universal relation between the oxygen mobility, Pt dispersion and the rate of methane transformation into syngas was not found, for some series, a good correlation was observed agreeing with the bifunctional scheme of the methane selective oxidation into syngas. (c) 2006 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.