Poland hopes to lift EU-Russia talks veto by Dec. 21

BRUSSELS, Dec 15 (Reuters) Poland said today it hoped to lift by December 21 its opposition to talks between the European Union and Russia on a new cooperation pact, a veto imposed to try to force Moscow to end a ban on Polish meat imports.

President Lech Kaczynski said he expected the EU to give Poland guarantees the bloc would freeze the negotiations unless Russia lifted the year-old ban, or moved to scrap it, within a certain deadline.

''I would like this issue to be resolved by the time the (agriculture) council meets on December 21,'' Kaczynski told a news conference after an EU summit.

Poland's veto has heated up a separate dispute between Russia and the EU over the country's threat to ban meat imports from the whole bloc next year.

Moscow is considering the ban because it says it has doubts over food safety standards in Bulgaria and Romania, which join the EU and its single market in January 1, 2007.

Kaczynski said Poland had submitted final proposals on the terms for dropping the Polish veto to the EU president, which contained ''some new solutions''. He gave no details.

He earlier met Finnish President Matti Vanhanen and European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso to ask how the EU could help Warsaw convince Russia to end its ban on imports of meat and vegetable products from Poland.

Vanhanen said there was no result yet, but his country's presidency had two weeks still to run.

Moscow cited cases of export fraud with Polish veterinary certificates to justify the ban. Warsaw insists it is politically motivated to intimidate a former satellite state.

The Polish veto has worsened latent hostility between Warsaw and its former Soviet master and caused embarrassment for the EU, which was unable to speak with a single voice at a meeting last month with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

A Polish diplomat said his country insisted the EU issue a declaration stating Russia should end, or move to end, its embargo on Polish foods within 50 days from the start of the EU-Russia talks in the cooperation pact.

Kaczynski said he was ready to extend the deadline. ''It does not have to be 50 days, why not 52 or 53? But it should not be too distant,'' he said.

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