Rice urges Russia to return to CFE security treaty

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday it would be "regrettable" if Russia ultimately decided not to return to a post-Cold War arms treaty and urged Moscow to reconsider its suspension.

In Brussels for a NATO foreign ministers meeting, Rice will raise the issue in a private meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Friday.

"It will be regrettable if the Russians decide to suspend. There is some question about what it means to suspend," Rice told reporters traveling with her to Brussels after a brief trip to Ethiopia.

Russia last week signed a law suspending its 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.

Rice said she believed some "very forward-leaning" proposals had been offered to the Russians on parallel actions over the forces they have in Georgia and Moldova, a key sticking point.

"This is one really where I thought we...could all agree," said Rice.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly called on NATO members to ratify an updated version of the treaty. They have insisted Russia first withdraws its troops from Georgia and Moldova as Moscow promised in 1999 when the treaty was reviewed.

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 is also at odds with Russia over a missile defence system that Washington would like to install in the Czech Republic and Poland as a counter to states such as Iran.

The United States has offered some new proposals aimed at easing tensions over its missile defence plans, which Russia denounces as a threat to its own security.

"Obviously as you begin to fill in details, perhaps there are things that the Russians thought might be there that are not there. But that is something that we can discuss," Rice said.

"There is no reason to assume that there isn't room to continue to refine these proposals," she said, without elaborating.

U.S. officials have said new U.S. suggestions, which Rice and Defence Secretary Robert Gates proposed in Russia in October, included stationing Russian and American liaison officers at each other's missile defense facilities as part of a broader joint effort to protect against missile attacks.

(Editing by Robert Woodward)