Russia wants to negotiate new arms pact in autumn

MOSCOW, July 20 (Reuters) Russia wants to start negotiating a new Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) treaty in the autumn, a foreign ministry department head told Interfax today, adding a timeframe to a previous offer.

Tomorrow, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced Russia would pull out of the treaty, a landmark pact limiting post-Cold War military strength in Europe.

NATO has said it was very concerned about Russia's pullout and suggested convening a special conference to discuss the treaty, a suggestion the Russians dismissed on Wednesday, proposing a fresh treaty instead.

''We hope that in the autumn we can begin substantive negotiations with our partners in the CFE, with the United States and NATO on the modernisation of the treaty,'' Anton Mazur, head of the Russian foreign ministry's department for conventional arms control, told Interfax.

Signed in 1990 and updated in 1999, the treaty limits the number of tanks, artillery, aircraft and helicopters stationed between the Atlantic and the Ural mountains in Russia.

Russia wants to pull out, because it complains NATO countries have failed to ratify the latest version of the treaty.

NATO members have declined to ratify it until Russia withdraws all its troops from ex-Soviet Moldova, as it pledged to do in 1999 when the pact was signed.

REUTERS CS HT1427