A ministry statement also suggested, however, that the decision to cancel the Torgau-2006 exercises was connected to a dispute between NATO and countries participating in the NATO "Partnership for Peace" program.

The U.S. Embassy in Moscow had no comment.

In its statement, the Defense Ministry said the cancellation was related to "unresolved questions connected with the status of foreign military personnel arriving on the territory of the Russian Federation."

The ministry said the exercises could be held at a later date once an agreement is reached between NATO members countries and participants in "Partnership for Peace" - a watered-down NATO program of cooperation between the alliance and former Soviet militaries. The statement said only that the agreement concerned "the status of forces."

Russia has watched with growing concern as NATO has expanded to include former Soviet bloc nations such as the three Baltic states, Poland, Hungary and other countries. Moscow relations with Washington also have cooled noticeably in recent months.

Earlier, Interfax quoted what it said was a high-ranking Defense Ministry official as saying: "The emotions being raised over these maneuvers by certain political forces do not match the scope of the planned exercises."

The Torgau-2006 exercises were to be held later this month in the central Russian region of Nizhny Novgorod, about 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow.

In previous years, the exercises were aimed at helping the two former adversaries coordinate a joint response to terrorism, as well as coordinate peacekeeping missions.

Last year, more than 275 Russian and U.S. troops held joint maneuvers outside Moscow as part of the exercises, which are named after the German town where American and Soviet soldiers met up on the Elbe River in 1945.

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