MOSCOW, April 22 (RIA Novosti) - Russia wants new international agreements on security and disarmament to be developed, the outgoing president said on Tuesday.

Disputes over existing arms reduction treaties between Russia and NATO have proved a major source of tension in recent years.

"We intend to press for the drafting of new agreements in the sphere of security and disarmament with other members of the international community," Vladimir Putin told a meeting of ambassadors.

He said Russia is open to broad cooperation on the basis of equality and mutual respect.

"I am convinced that Russia will continue to propose to its foreign partners a highly positive agenda for fruitful discussions and joint work," he said.

Putin, now in the final weeks of his presidency, said the collective search for solutions to global and regional problems could only be moved forward by taking mutual interests into account.

Arms reduction was an area on which Putin and U.S. President George W. Bush failed to agree at their farewell summit in Sochi earlier this month.

Russia imposed a unilateral moratorium on the Conventional Forces in Europe treaty in December 2007, amid concerns over U.S. plans to deploy a missile shield in Central Europe and NATO's ongoing expansion. Moscow has said it will resume its participation if NATO countries ratify the document.

A package of measures to allay Russia's concerns on the treaty was proposed by Washington last fall, and supported by all other NATO members.

A nuclear arms pact, the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, was signed by the United States and the Soviet Union on July 31, 1991, five months before the U.S.S.R. collapsed, and remains in force between the U.S., Russia, and three other ex-Soviet states. The treaty is set to expire on December 5, 2009.