"We intend to put the question firmly of the formulation of precise and unequivocal guarantees that arms and military forces of third countries will not be deployed on the territory of the Baltic countries," said spokesman Alexander Yakovenko.

The three Baltic states, annexed by Stalin in 1940, were constituent republics of the Soviet Union until they declared themselves independent in 1990 in the start of what was to become the break-up of the Soviet Union the following year.

Russia strongly opposed their bids to joining NATO, but confined its protest to rhetoric.

"We note the declarations of the authorities of several countries in the (NATO) Alliance and in the Baltic countries on adhesion to the principle of limitation of military resources," the Moscow foreign ministry statement continued on the eve of a session of the Russia-NATO Council in Madrid this week.

Russia also expected concrete initiatives on ratification of the Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty, limiting forces on the continent, the statement said.

The three Baltic states will join the European Union next May and also hope to join NATO next year after being invited at a NATO summit in Prague last year in a projected eastward expansion of NATO.

Russia has drawn closer to the western alliance since the September 11, 20001 terrorist attacks in the United States, joining in the international war on terror.

But with Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary -- former Warsaw Pact allies -- already NATO members, and the Baltics eager to join, Moscow takes a jaundiced view of the former Cold War adversary NATO expanding eastwards up to its own borders.

The CFE treaty was signed before the three Baltic states became independent of the Soviet Union. For them to adhere to it, a new version renegotiated in 1999 must first be ratified by signatory states.

Russia has shown concern at delay in ratification of the CFE accord and troop deployment in new NATO members.

"We are concerned about the delay in the ratification of the CFE treaty and the deployment of armed forces in new NATO member states," Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told the Russia-NATO Council last month.

In 1999, 30 countries including the United States and Russia signed an updated version of the 1990 CFE treaty limiting conventional forces in Europe, a pact designed to eliminate the risk of surprise attacks.

However final ratification has been regularly put back amid disagreements between Moscow and Washington over whether Russia has fully met commitments it made to withdraw its troops from the former Soviet republics of Georgia and Moldova.

WAR.WIRE