Russia wants Euro arms pact revived in crisis talks

VIENNA, June 12 (Reuters) Russia has called for constructive dialogue with NATO nations on revitalising an arms control pact that it considers outdated and that will be the subject of an emergency conference starting today.

On the eve of the meeting on the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty, a senior Russian official said it was unacceptable that the CFE should restrict Russia's troop movements within its own territory.

But Anatoly Antonov, head of Moscow's delegation to the Vienna gathering, softened President Vladimir Putin's April declaration of a freeze in Russian compliance with the CFE, which shook East-West relations already at a post-Cold War low.

''We have not declared a moratorium,'' Antonov told a news conference. ''At this particular point we are not talking about withdrawing from the treaty but rather we are talking about suspending the operation of the treaty.'' ''Our desire to revitalise the treaty is what was behind our request for this conference,'' he said, denying that Russia was provoked to call the conference by U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in central Europe, close to Russia's borders.

The CFE treaty, first signed in 1990, is still described as a cornerstone of European security. It limits the amount of heavy military equipment deployed in the area from the Atlantic to the Urals that used to be split by the Iron Curtain.

It was updated in 1999 after most of the old Soviet Union's Warsaw Pact allies joined NATO. But most of the 30 signatories have refused to ratify the updated version until Russia pulls out its bases from Moldova and Georgia, as it has promised.

''These days, one can say it is hopelessly outmoded. Many eastern and central European countries have already joined NATO,'' said Antonov.

Russia wants speedy ratification of the 1999 version of the treaty, mainly because it objects to the original pact's restrictions on Russian troop movements in parts of the former Soviet Union, particularly the volatile North Caucasus.

Limits on military equipment in this region had to be divided among six newly independent states after the collapse of the Soviet Union, limiting Russia's room for manoeuvre.

Antonov said Russia wanted to start negotiations to amend the adapted treaty to give Russia more freedom on its own territory as soon as the pact was ratified by NATO countries.

''We are the ones who are experiencing this humiliating, discriminating treatment,'' Antonov said.

''We continue to hear that Russia and NATO are friends, that we should improve relations between the two,'' he said. ''Fine. I agree. Let's be friends. Let's talk about this like friends.'' The US delegation was due to outline its position today afternoon, just before the conference begins.

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