Russian President Vladimir Putin has faced stiff resistance from Soviet-trained army generals in his plan to cut the size of the country's armed forces, which counted some 1.16 million people before reforms began late last year.

"We have already nearly reached the minimum -- around one million men -- and the military leadership thinks this is the number of troops Russia needs in the short, medium and long term," Yury Baluyevsky said.

"Perfecting the military's structure will continue, but the reduction process will end in 2003," he said, quoted by Interfax news agency.

Part of the reform plan proposed by Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov includes setting up a professional force of some 166,000 soldiers by 2007, while filling the rest of the armed forces' ranks with drafted conscripts.

The draft -- which obliges Russian men over 18 to serve either two years in the army or three years in the navy -- is notorious for widespread violence and cruel hazing practices.

Yet Soviet-era generals fear the military would collapse without it, with few Russians likely to choose to serve in an armed forces with few social benefits while the war in separatist Chechnya continues to rage.

Baluyevsky also ruled out a proposal by leading Russian liberal politician Boris Nemtsov to cut the Russian army to 800,000 soldiers, saying the move would diminish Russia's global standing.

"If we want to be purely a regional power we should follow the example of the armed forces of (small ex-Soviet) countries such as Georgia and Moldova," he said.

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