MUNICH, Feb 10: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday slammed the US and Europe for threatening global security by imposing unilateral policies on other countries and using military force to tackle complicated problems.

In a speech reminiscent of Moscow’s anti-western rhetoric during the Cold War, President Putin told an international security conference in Munich that a US-led "unipolar world" was unacceptable and had led to more wars and conflict across the globe.

"Today we are witnessing an almost uncontained hyper-use of military force in international relations," Mr Putin said in an unusually sharp criticism of the US.

Mr Putin also lashed out at the countries seeking to give lessons in democracy to Moscow and said western economic dominance was being increasingly challenged by the emerging power of China, India, Brazil and Russia.

The annual security conference is the top global forum on defence issues. This year‘s event is being attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, US Secretary of Defence Robert Gates and Nato chief Jaap de Hoop Scheffer as well as Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri.

Mr Putin set a tough, uncompromising tone in the first few minutes of his speech by warning the new unipolar world led by the US was far less secure than the old balance of power between the US and the former Soviet Union during the Cold War."This is very dangerous ... nobody feels secure any more," he said.

He also cautioned that the sense of insecurity was fuelling a drive in many countries to produce weapons of mass destruction.

The Russian president sharply criticized the planned deployment of 10 anti-ballistic missile systems by the US — to be stationed in Poland and the Czech Republic - and vowed that Moscow would develop cheaper, asymmetrical systems to overcome any American anti-ballistic missile system.

Mr Putin was scathing about Nato enlargement into former parts of the

Soviet bloc and also staked out Russia‘s opposing views to the US and Europe on global flashpoints, including Kosovo and Iran.