MOSCOW — President Vladimir Putin said Thursday that Russia would suspend its compliance with a treaty on conventional arms in Europe that was forged at the end of the Cold War, opening a fresh and intensive dispute in the souring relations between NATO and the Kremlin.

Putin's announcement, made in his annual address to Parliament, underscored the Kremlin's anger at the United States for proposing to install a new missile defense system in Europe, which the Bush administration insists is meant to counter potential threats from North Korea and Iran. Putin suggested that Russia would use its future compliance with the treaty as a bargaining point in that disagreement with United States.

The new confrontation also demonstrated Russia's lingering frustrations with the treaties negotiated by the Kremlin in the 1990s, when Russia, still staggering through its post-Soviet troubles, was much weaker and less assertive on the world stage than it is today.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, speaking in Oslo at a gathering of top diplomats from NATO nations, reacted coldly to Putin's speech. "These are treaty obligations, and everyone is expected to live up to treaty obligations," she said.

Rice also dismissed Russian concerns that introducing new military technology to Europe could upset the balance of forces there and lead to a new cold war. She called such claims "purely ludicrous" and said the scale of the proposed missile defense system was obviously far too small to affect the Russian nuclear arsenal.

Although the step by Putin was an incremental one, it was highly symbolic and was reminiscent of Cold War brinksmanship. The agreement in question, the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe, known by the initials CFE, was signed in 1990 by the NATO nations and the nations of the former Warsaw Pact, including Russia.

It required the reduction and relocation of much of the main battle equipment then located along former east-west dividing lines, including tanks, artillery pieces, armored vehicles and attack aircraft. It also established an inspection regime.

Under the treaty, more than 50,000 pieces of military equipment were altered or destroyed by 1995. With its initial ambitions largely achieved, it was renegotiated in 1999, adding a requirement that Russia withdraw its forces from Georgia and Moldova, two former Soviet republics where tensions and intrigue with Moscow run high.

Russia has not withdrawn its troops, and the revised treaty has not been ratified by most of the signatory nations, including the United States, which has withheld ratification until the Kremlin complies with the troop withdrawal commitments.

Although in many ways the treaty had already stalled, it remained a powerful diplomatic marker, a central element in the group of agreements that defused the threat of war in Europe as communism collapsed.

Putin abruptly called into question the future of the treaty, announcing a moratorium on compliance and seizing on two contentious issues: the proposed American missile defense system and the West's reluctance to ratify the latest treaty. Putin pointedly did not use any of the conciliatory language he sometimes inserts in his speeches to leaven his criticisms of the United States.

He also accused the West of using programs promoting democracy to meddle in Russia's domestic affairs.

He used the speech to Parliament to restate his intention of leaving office next year, when his second four-year term will end. Under the Constitution, a Russian president can serve only two terms, but there have been calls by politicians loyal to Putin for him to stay on and speculation has never fully subsided that he might.

"In the spring of next year my duties end and the next State of the Nation speech will be delivered by a different head of state," he said.

He did not define what he meant by a CFE "moratorium," but he suggested that Russia would withdraw completely from the treaty if he were not satisfied with negotiations with the NATO-Russia Council, an organization created in 2002 to increase cooperation between the former enemies.

"I propose discussing this problem," he said, adding, "and should there be no progress in the negotiations, to look at the possibility of ceasing our commitments under the CFE treaty."

Putin's remarks drew the loudest applause of the day from Parliament, which otherwise sat mostly quietly during a 70-minute speech. It also drew a swift reaction from NATO.

Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, the organization's secretary general, expressed NATO's continued support for the treaty and demanded that Sergey Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, explain Putin's position.

"I expect Foreign Minister Lavrov to explain the words of his president," de Hoop Scheffer said, according to news agency reports.

In Oslo, Rice said the United States would continue discussing the missile defense system with Russian officials, in an effort to "demystify" it. She planned to meet Lavrov later Thursday.