MOSCOW, July 18 (Xinhua) -- There is no need to hold a NATO-proposed emergency conference on the Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE) Treaty, Russian Defense Ministry said Wednesday.

    "We outlined the whole range of emergency circumstances at it. But NATO's position remained unchanged -- you must fulfill the Istanbul obligations, after which we will ratify the adapted CFE Treaty," Lieut. Gen. Yevgeny Buzhinsky, director of the Defense Ministry's international department, was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying.

    "NATO has 150 days because Russia's (CFE) moratorium is to come into force on December 13. We hope that NATO, if it is ready, will use this period of time to somewhat modify its position and show its readiness to reexamine individual points of the adapted CFE Treaty," Buzhinsky said.

    Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a decree suspending Russia's participation in the treaty due to "extraordinary circumstances which affect the security of the Russian Federation and require immediate measures," said the Kremlin press service on Saturday.

    The CFE treaty aims to maintain military balance in Europe by setting limits on key categories of conventional military equipment for NATO countries and those of the rival Warsaw Pact.

    It was signed in 1990 and an adapted treaty was agreed upon in 1999. So far only Russia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine have ratified the 1999 treaty. NATO countries have refused to do so, insisting that Russia must first fulfill the so-called "Istanbul obligations" -- withdrawal of Russian troops from Moldova and Georgia.

    Russia had threatened several times to withdraw from the CFE when it was at odds with the United States over U.S. plans to install a missile defense shield in Eastern Europe.

    Putin threatened to suspend Russia's obligations under the CFE treaty in April. An extraordinary conference on June 12-15 in Vienna failed to produce an agreement on the issue.