Only Poland can resolve meat import row-Russia

MOSCOW, Feb 7 (Reuters) Russia urged Poland to put aside historical grievances and resolve a dispute over meat imports which is hindering the start of negotiations on a new cooperation pact between Moscow and the European Union.

Russia banned Polish meat imports on safety grounds more than a year ago, leading Poland to veto talks on the new partnership deal until the block was lifted.

''We believe the ball is in Poland's court. No one other than Poland can solve this problem,'' Sergei Yastrzhembsky, President Vladimir Putin's special representative on EU relations, told a news conference yesterday.

The national elites of some recent EU entrants had ''big hang-ups'' about their ''special relations'' in the past with Russia, he said.

''(They) try in part to exercise these hang-ups through their relations with contemporary Russia. These new entrants have to a certain extent influenced the atmosphere of relations between Russia and the EU,'' said Yastrzhembsky, A group of Russian veterinary inspectors is now in Poland inspecting export controls on food products in an attempt to end the spat.

The dispute has heightened long-standing distrust between Russia and the former satellite state which turned its back on Moscow and built alliances with the West.

Many politicians in Warsaw believe the Kremlin is wielding the ban as a political weapon. The EU has deemed the import block as ''disproportionate.'' Reuters SRS VP0435