MOSCOW, Nov. 7 (Xinhua) -- Russia's parliament voted unanimously Wednesday to suspend Moscow's participation in a key 1990 European arms control treaty.

    The State Duma, lower house of the Russian parliament, on Wednesday approved the law suspending Russia's participation in the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty (CFE treaty).

    This ratification bill is supposed to be passed in only one reading and should be forwarded to the Federation Council, the upper house of parliament, for approval.

    The law was submitted to the lower house by Russian president Vladimir Putin after signing a decree on Russia's moratorium on CFE operation in July.

    Putin said in an explanatory note to the bill that Russia's decision to suspend its participation in the CFE Treaty was "prompted by the fact that the treaty no longer meets military and political realities in Europe and therefore does not duly protect the Russian Federation's security interests."

    The law was approved unanimously by 418 lawmakers present at the Wednesday session.

    The CFE, signed by 22 states in Paris on Nov. 19, 1990, represented an agreement between NATO members and Warsaw Pact countries. It was aimed at establishing a balance in Europe by cutting weapons of conventional armed forces.

    The treaty, which came into force on Nov. 9, 1992, limits deployments of tanks and troops in countries belonging to the NATO and the former Warsaw Pact countries in eastern Europe and lays down measures aimed at confidence-building, transparency and cooperation between member states.

    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.

    At the October talks in the "two-plus-two" format joined by defense and foreign ministers of the two countries in Moscow, Russia and the United States failed to reach any agreement on missile defense in Europe. Russia refused to give in to the U.S. missile defense shield and CFE demands.

    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Kislyak was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency on Wednesday as saying that Moscow, by introducing a moratorium on the operation of the CFE treaty, does not aim to damage arms control.

    "We're not aiming to cause any damage to arms control, but wish to give an impulse to the restoration of the CFE's viability," Kislyak emphasized at the State Duma.

    "It was a decision of necessity to impose a moratorium on operation of the treaty -- a clear signal to the partners that all the parties -- not only Russia -- must meet their commitments," he said.

    Kislyak also noted that "western partners begin to take more seriously what Russia is telling them."

    "However to secure a way out of the present situation (with the CFE), the signatories of the treaty, -- the NATO countries in the first place, must take a number of important steps, and, in effect, make a political decision which gives satisfactory answers to the questions raised by Russia," Kislyak said.

    Moscow considers the original CFE Treaty to be outdated since it does not reflect the dissolution of the Warsaw Pact, the breakup of the Soviet Union, or recent NATO expansion.