Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said a meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Segei Lavrov brought no breakthrough and no indication Moscow might be willing to back down over a missile system NATO says breaches the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty.

The impending collapse of the 1987 agreement -- seen as a cornerstone of global arms control -- has raised doubts about the future of the fight against proliferation.

The US began pulling out of the INF treaty earlier this month in response to Moscow's deployment of the 9M729 missile, prompting Russia to announce its own withdrawal.

NATO has been urging Russia to save the treaty by abandoning the missile system, which officials say can hit capital cities throughout Europe as far as London.

"There were no new signals from the Russian side," Stoltenberg said after talks with Lavrov at the Munich Security Conference.

NATO has begun planning for the collapse of the treaty, but insists it will not "mirror" Russia, and Germany's Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen said there should be no "tit for tat".

Russia insists the missile system conforms to the treaty and offered foreign media and officials a viewing in a park outside Moscow last month.

US officials have said the "static display" did not answer the concerns about the missile, and Stoltenberg accused Moscow of disregarding the inspection protocols enshrined in the treaty.

"There is a specific verification committee and there are specific guidelines, rules on how to inspect, so a static display is not verification according to the treaty," he said.

The US has been raising concerns about the new Russian missile for more than five years, and last year published evidence it said proved the system was in breach.

Evidence has now been gathered independently by "several" other NATO countries that confirms the breach, Stoltenberg said.