Abrupt troops withdrawal from Iraq would be catastrophic:Russia

Moscow, Feb 9 (UNI) Russia today warned that sudden withdrawal of foreign troops from Iraq will lead to catastrophic consequences in the country and said a timeframe for gradual pull out must be prepared.

''I do not believe anyone would support the immediate withdrawal of international forces under current conditions,'' Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview to German magazine Der Spiegel.

''An abrupt withdrawal or a stampede could entail catastrophic consequences, but it is also unacceptable to maintain a military presence there forever,'' Mr Lavrov noted.

He pointed that the withdrawal of forces from Iraq should be measured and gradual, while responsibility for security in the country should be simultaneously handed over to the Iraqis.

He added that in order to do so, the Iraqi police, law enforcement bodies and the Army had to be reinforced.

''We proposed that a year ago, when another resolution prolonged a mandate on the presence of multinational forces in Iraq,'' Mr Lavrov said stressing ''We were convinced that a timetable for withdrawal was necessary, which would show Iraqis that the presence would not be forever and that the country belonged to them.'' On the deployment of US missiles in Europe, the Foreign Minister said Russia would find an ''intellectual response'' to US European missile plans.

He said while Russia did not see objective motives for deploying elements of the US missile defence in Europe, it will not be dragged into another arms race but will find ''an intellectual response'' to these plans instead.

''As regards the US missile defence system, we do not see objective motives for deploying these elements in Europe and do not think that the threats that have been cited to rationalise this deployment, namely North Korea and Iran, are sufficient for such radical shifts in strategic stability,'' Mr Lavrov added.

Meanwhile, Russia today proposed talks to replace Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty (SORT).

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's security and disarmament department Anatoly Antonov told Interfax news agency that Russia wanted to preserve its agreements on strategic offensive reductions with the United States as the two countries' Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty was due to expire in December 2009.

''We have forwarded a proposal to our US partners to launch a negotiating process to replace the Strategic Offensive Reductions Treaty. This process should become one of the areas of our dialogue on the most crucial disarmament issues Russia wants to be resumed,'' Mr Antonov said.

UNI