MOSCOW, November 18 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - Marking 200 years of their diplomatic relations, Russia criticized the United States' "excessive" tendency to use force, as Russian President Vladimir Putin urged the country’s armed forces to prepare for “challenges of tomorrow”.

"Russia is concerned about Washington's excessive tendency to use force in resolving international questions, its preference for unilateral actions to the detriment of international unity," Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said on Tuesday, November 18.

He was speaking before an audience of former and present Russian and U.S. diplomats attending a conference to mark 200 years of diplomatic relations that Moscow was "far from content with every aspect of U.S. foreign policy, Agence France-Presse (AFP) reported.

Ivanov said the two former Cold War foes had succeeded in placing relations on a "stable and predictable" footing more than a decade since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.

But he admitted that "Russia is concerned about Washington's excessive tendency to use force in resolving international questions, its preference for unilateral actions to the detriment of international unity".

The U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in March had been a "serious upset for relations between Russia and the United States," the foreign minister said.

"We considered and still consider the war in Iraq a mistake. The latest events confirmed our view," he added, in reference to the daily resistance attacks against U.S. occupation forces.

"Irrespective of its economic or military power, a country cannot advance its interests ignoring the collective will of the international community," Ivanov insisted.

The United States went to the invasion of Iraq without the authorization of the United Nations, and with the opposition of many countries such as Russia, France and Germany.

In the meanwhile, U.S. ambassador to Moscow Alexander Vershbow steered clear of any direct criticism of Russia, but made a veiled reference to the controversy surrounding the arrest of Russian oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

He said Russia and the United States can deepen their ties only if Moscow respects individual rights and those of private business.

"The next steps will depend on what choice Russia makes. If U.S.-Russian ties are to attain their full potential, the Russian government and people should promote the development of the private sector and civil society," he said.

"This is an essential condition for creating shared values which would form the foundation for a genuine and long-lasting partnership. Without this, Americans won't invest in Russia as they have in Europe," added Vershbow.

The White House has raised "serious concerns" about Russian prosecutors' campaign against the oil giant Yukos, saying it called into question Russia’s investment climate and commitment to the rule of law.

Yukos' former chief executive and main shareholder Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the richest man in the country, was arrested on October 25 and detained on seven counts including fraud, tax evasion and embezzlement.

Observers have described the arrest as a Kremlin move to neutralize a troublesome political opponent who was funding opposition parties ahead of December 7 parliamentary elections.

But the Yukos affair has also raised concern that the state is seeking to reestablish control over the energy sector, including possible renationalisation of assets privatized in disputed 1990s deals.

Vershbow told the Interfax news agency on the sidelines of the conference that the United States still hoped that Russia would become a major oil supplier to the U.S. market.

"We hope that despite the difficulties surrounding Yukos our energy partnership will move forward," he said.

Also Tuesday, President Putin urged the development of armed forces at a meeting of military chiefs, saying that the army's fighting capacities, its strategy and tactics "must be flexible, receptive to everything progressive".

Armed forces must be prepared to face "the challenges of tomorrow and not the wars of the last century".

The objective of current military reforms is to create "an army in which almost half the troops are professional by the end of 2007" with consequently "a possible reduction of military service to one year," Putin said in televised comments.

Mandatory military service in Russia's armed forces is two years (three years in the navy), and the army in particular suffers from low morale and a high rate of draft evasion.

"Next year, a considerable part of the military budget will be devoted to combat training," he said.

Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, speaking at the same meeting, said that by 2008 the armed forces should include 244,000 professional servicemen.

However, Ivanov slammed the chief of staff of the air force for the low level of training of its pilots and the poor quality of its planes.

Ivanov reproached air force chiefs for "having failed to improve the situation even slightly over the past year," the ITAR-TASS news agency reported.

Army crime claimed the lives of 337 servicemen this year, with suicides accounting for 35 percent of the deaths, said the minister.

Many of these were the result of allowing too much authority within barracks, he said.

Last week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch published a report stating that conscripts were routinely denied adequate food and access to health care.

Leading military analyst Pavel Felgenhauer dismissed Putin and Ivanov's comments as "pre-electoral" politics.