EU on track for Russia talks, Lithuania drops veto

The EU looks set to launch talks with Russia next month on a new partnership deal after Lithuania

The European Union looks likely to launch talks with Russia next month on a new partnership deal after Lithuania today dropped its veto on negotiations starting. Lithuania had blocked the talks with Russia, which the EU hopes to launch at a June 26-27 summit in Siberia, as it wanted the mandate to include several topics, including a resumption of crude oil supplies cut by Russia in 2006.

The Baltic state dropped its veto after talks in Vilnius with Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency. "We have found the middle way, compromises, which I hope should satisfy other colleagues from the (EU foreign) ministers' council," Rupel told reporters after the talks.

Lithuanian Foreign Minister Petras Vaitiekunas said he hoped the mandate for the talks would be approved at the next EU foreign ministers' meeting later this month and said the mandate would include all its concerns. Lithuania had wanted the mandate to have tougher wording on the EU's stance on Russia's role in so-called "frozen conflicts" with ex-Soviet neighbours such as Georgia.

It also wanted Russian cooperation in criminal investigations and compensations for Lithuanians deported to Siberia by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. The Polish and Swedish foreign ministers were in Vilnius on Sunday and were expected to travel to Georgia early tomorrow with their Lithuanian and Slovenian colleagues.

The EU and NATO said last week that Russia had fuelled tensions by deploying extra troops in Abkhazia, which broke from Tbilisi in a war after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union. Georgia says Russia's move to send more troops there risks sparking an all-out conflict. - Reuters