"The agreement signed yesterday (Tuesday) is not only completely consistent with CFE obligations, it is also consistent with every declaration and every understanding that NATO has ever made with Russia," said a US official travelling with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

"It is well within that margin of comprehension, so there is no basis for Russia to be concerned."

Rice signed on Tuesday an historic agreement with Romania to establish permanent US military bases in that country, the first-ever in a former Warsaw Pact nation.

However the announcement caused concern in Moscow with Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov saying on Wednesday that "the expansion of NATO and US installations up to Russia's borders calls into question the future of the CFE (Conventional Armed Forces in Europe) treaty".

"Russia is currently fulfilling all its obligations under the treaty. But if we see that the other countries are ignoring it, we draw conclusions from that," Ivanov said on Russian public television.

The 1990 CFE treaty was aimed at limiting the deployment of conventional arms by NATO and the Warsaw Pact nations. After the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, it was remodelled in 1999.

The threats of Russian withdrawal from the CFE treaty comes amid a meeting between foreign ministers of NATO countries and their Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov in Brussels.

The centre for the US's so-called Eastern European Task Force (EETAF) will be at the air base near Constanta on the Romanian Black Sea coast, said a State Department official who asked not to be named.

The expected 1,500-strong US force will also use three other sites in Romania -- Smardan training range, Babadag training area and Cincu training range.

Source: Agence France-Presse

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