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Russia slams the US for blocking alliance in Europe

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the US yesterday of blocking a cooperation program between Moscow and the NATO alliance in a row over a European arms treaty, Russian news agencies reported.

"The fact that an important document that simply set out a large number of spheres of agreement ... has been blocked due to the absolutely ideological position of our American colleagues, who are trying to force us to annul Russia's law on the Conventional Forces in Europe [CFE] treaty, obviously is a cause for regret," Lavrov was quoted by Interfax as saying.

Lavrov was referring to Russia's decision to suspend adherence to the CFE treaty, which sets limits on levels of troops and military hardware on the continent.

Lavrov, who had attended a NATO-Russia meeting at the alliance's headquarters on Friday, said the US was blocking approval of a program setting out cooperation for next year in areas such as combating weapons of mass destruction, narcotics, industrial accidents and air space management.

Last month Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law freezing Moscow's adherence to the CFE starting on Wednesday.

Russia said it had taken the step because of the failure of NATO states to ratify a revised version of the treaty produced in 1999 to take account of the collapse of the independence of countries formerly ruled from Moscow.

NATO states have said they will not ratify the revised treaty until Russia fulfils a related commitment to move military facilities from ex-Soviet Georgia and Moldova.

Meanwhile, Washington said on Friday that it was pushing ahead with a planned missile shield that has angered Russia even as a new US assessment downgraded the nuclear threat from Iran.

Washington has defended plans to build missile defense facilities in the Czech Republic and Poland as necessary to protect European allies from a potential missile strike from "rogue" states, especially Iran.

A new US intelligence community assessment on Iran's nuclear ambitions, however, found that the Islamic republic froze an atomic bomb program in 2003.

But the White House has insisted that the Islamic republic remains a danger, arguing that it could revive the nuclear weapons program anytime. And the US Defense Department says Iran's conventional missiles are still a threat.

Also See: US urges Persian Gulf to unite against Tehran
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