Putin, EU play down differences before summit

Moscow, May 16: Russia and the European Union played down their differences today in last-minute talks to salvage their summit this week, which a senior Kremlin aide said would be the most difficult for years.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier met in Moscow three days before the summit near the Russian city of Samara that threatens to dissolve into acrimony.

Steinmeier, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, said progress had been made but there was no sign of a breakthrough on issues including a Russian ban on imports of Polish meat and a row between Moscow and Estonia that have soured Russia's relationship with the bloc.

''Preparing for the summit has been difficult,'' Steinmeier said after his talks with Putin. ''There have been a number of specific problems which we have not been able to solve over the past few weeks. Keeping silent about them doesn't help.

''That is why I looked for an opportunity to meet with the Russian president and the foreign minister. That was a good decision. We are now seeing the situation around the preparation for the ... summit in a much clearer way.'' Speaking at the start of the meeting, Putin said: ''There are differences of opinion on how to solve specific problems, but both sides have a desire to solve them.'' Putin met Steinmeier straight after talks with US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who is also trying to soothe her country's tense relations with Russia.

Difficult Conditions

Russia and the EU had hoped their summit would mark the launch of negotiations on an ambitious new EU-Russia partnership pact. But Warsaw, angered by Moscow's meat ban, has vetoed the start of those talks.

Russian anger is still simmering over Estonia's removal of a bronze statue of a Soviet soldier from its spot in the centre of the Estonian capital. Moscow said it showed disrespect for the millions of Soviet citizens killed during World War Two.

Sergei Yastrzhembsky, the Kremlin's top adviser on relations with the EU, said the atmosphere around the summit was more charged that it had been for several years.

''The conditions are perhaps the most difficult this time, if you compare it to previous summits,'' he told Reuters in an interview today.

He slammed the EU for failing to condemn bloc-member Estonia over its removal of the war memorial.

''(The bloc's reaction) was, at the least, not satisfactory for us. I believe the reaction was hypocritical and it was not appropriate.'' Despite the differences, he said the summit would not break down into arguments. ''I think partners, when they respect each other, try to avoid rows. This is our case with the EU.'' He also set the political disputes against the context of Russia's growing economic ties with the EU. Trade between the two rose 30 percent last year, in part as European companies cashed in by selling goods to Russia's booming economy.

''At the summit we will be busy with problems which, if you take the whole sum of EU-Russian relations, are microscopic,'' Yastrzhembsky said.

He offered reassurances to the EU on two other issues which had threatened to cloud relations further.

He said a deal Russia signed last week with Turkmenistan to build a new gas pipeline via Russia was not a threat to Europe. Western states had been lobbying the Central Asian state to export its gas via an alternative route bypassing Russia.

He also said Russia was still committed to completing a deal that would eventually waive the fees paid by airlines for the right to fly over Siberia on their way to Asia. EU diplomats said this week Russia was holding up the agreement.

Reuters>