Russia says may return to arms pact, if revised

Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during a visit to the Lavochkin spacecraft design bureau outside Moscow December 3, 2007.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia might one day return to a key post-Cold War arms treaty, but only if NATO members ratify an updated version of the pact.

Putin signed a law last week suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty in a move which could allow it to deploy more forces close to western Europe. The move comes into force on December 12-13.

Putin has repeatedly called on NATO members to ratify an updated version of the treaty, but they have insisted Russia first withdraw its troops from Georgia and Moldova as Moscow promised in 1999 when the treaty was reviewed.

"If our partners eventually ratify these agreements and start complying with it, then we could re-establish our participation," Putin told workers outside Moscow at the Lavochkin spacecraft design bureau.

But Putin added: "I would like to emphasize that we cannot wait forever."

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is due to discuss the CFE treaty with NATO counterparts in Brussels on Friday and a spokesman for the alliance said high-level discussions were under way to look at how it could be ratified by all parties.

"I don't think we should be too gloomy about the CFE treaty," NATO spokesman James Appathurai said. "No matter what happens on December 12, there's a shared desire to have it enter into force. Discussions are under way to find a way to do that."

The treaty, signed in 1990 and updated in 1999, limits the number of battle tanks, heavy artillery, combat aircraft and attack helicopters deployed and stored between the Atlantic and Russia's Ural mountains.

The United States, the European Union and NATO had urged Putin not to suspend the treaty, seen as a cornerstone of European security.

Moscow argues it has been used by an enlarged NATO to limit Russian military movements while NATO builds up forces close to Russia in contravention of earlier agreements.

(Reporting by Conor Sweeney in Moscow and David Brunnstrom in Brussels, editing by Paul Taylor)