EU president Finland to visit Poland in Russia row

BRUSSELS, Nov 16 (Reuters) Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the European Union's presidency, will visit Warsaw tomorrow for talks with Poland on a deadlock threatening to prevent the launch of talks on a strategic partnership agreement, a Finnish diplomat said.

Warsaw is blocking consensus in the 25-nation EU on a negotiating mandate for a new agreement due to be initiated at an EU-Russia summit in Helsinki on November 24 in protest against a Russian ban on imports of meat and some other foods from Poland.

''The prime minister will go to Poland tomorrow to meet his colleague (Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski),'' the diplomat said.

Reuters SK VV2050