Russian President Vladimir Putin said here Tuesday that the planned deployment of United States anti-ballistic missile components in Europe "is turning the continent into a tinderbox."

Putin made the remarks when talking with visiting Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, the Itar-Tass news agency reported.

He also criticized NATO members, accusing them of failing to ratify an arms control treaty in Europe although Russia has ratified it. The president has said he was suspending Russia's obligation to the treaty during his state of the nation speech last month.

"It is a question of their unwillingness to ratify the adapted Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe and U.S. plans to deploy missile defense elements in Eastern Europe." Itar-Tass quoted Putin as saying.

Putin said he hoped that Russia-European relations will improve when Portugal holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union in the latter half of this year.

The two leaders hailed Russian-Portuguese ties and pledged to enhance economic cooperation. Bilateral trade between the two countries increased by 26 percent year on year to about 1.5 billion U.S. dollars in 2006.