Russia puts on hold military training with US

MOSCOW, Sep 5 (Reuters) Russia, watching with unease NATO's expansion towards its borders, today postponed indefinitely planned military training with the United States that has angered some influential nationalists.

More than 200 US servicemen, including about 60 carrying firearms, had been due to take part in the Torgau-2006 joint training in central Russia in late September-early October.

A similar training was held in Russia last year.

But Russia's Defence Ministry, quoted by local news agencies, said it had called off this year's exercise because ''the status of the presence of foreign military on Russia's territory is yet to be cemented into law''.

''We have received a document with the relevant order, and I can confirm that the training is being postponed indefinitely,'' a Defence Ministry official, who declined to be named, said.

Moscow has so far not ratified last year's Partnership for Peace Status of Forces (SOFA) agreement it signed with NATO to facilitate the movement of alliance forces in Russia and of Russian troops in NATO member states.

Moscow's ties with NATO have been strained by the prospect of ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia joining the Western alliance.

Russian leaders acknowledge the right of the two countries, which had made a U-turn from their traditional dependence on Moscow, to join any international organisation.

But Russia clearly sees NATO's overtures to Ukraine and Georgia as a potential threat to its national security and a sign of the alliance poaching in what Moscow sees as its sphere of interests.

Russian nationalists, including the Communist party, have described the training as an attempt ''to put a key Russian region on a NATO map'', and threatened to hold nationwide protests and block roads to the training site.

The US embassy in Moscow declined to comment on the delay.

A US defence source said he still hoped that the exercises would be held at a later date. ''We are not done yet,'' he said.

Reuters SHB GC2042