Divided EU hosts Russia's Putin at summit

HELSINKI, Nov 24 (Reuters) The European Union opened summit talks with Russia in disarray today after Poland vetoed the start of talks on a partnership pact.

The EU's guest, President Vladimir Putin, faced awkward questions over the mystery death of a former Russian spy.

The start of EU-Russia partnership talks was to have been the main set-piece of the summit but was scrapped because Poland, in a dispute with Moscow over a Russian ban on meat imports, blocked consensus on a negotiating mandate.

The death of Alexander Litvinenko in London yesterday -- three weeks after the naturalised Briton was poisoned in what friends said was a plot orchestrated by the Kremlin -- was likely to dog Putin at the Helsinki summit.

Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, whose country holds the EU presidency, expressed sympathy to Litvinenko's family but declined to say whether he would press Putin about the death.

Russia says claims it had a hand in the poisoning are nonsense. A Kremlin spokesman said Litvinenko's death was ''a tragedy.'' British doctors said they had no idea what poison was used, and police were investigating his ''unexplained'' death.

The Polish veto was an embarrassing setback for the EU as it tries to bridge differences with Russia -- its biggest energy supplier -- over how to ensure future oil and gas supplies, and over issues of democracy and human rights.

''Of course it would be better not to have it (the Polish veto) but we are going to keep on working,'' EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said as he arrived at the summit venue. ''The situation will be overcome.'' A senior Polish official said today Warsaw believed a compromise could still be found in the meat row and the veto might be withdrawn within days -- but too late for the summit.

EU officials said that even without the launch of talks on a new partnership agreement, setting out the broad principles of EU-Russian relations, there were other weighty issues on the summit agenda.

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