"Don't try to split the EU", Barroso tells Russia

BERLIN, May 19 (Reuters) European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso warned Russia not to try to create divisions within the European Union by dismissing the concerns of some newer members, a German magazine reported today.

''One can get the impression that Russia views some EU members, like Poland or the Baltic states, differently from others,'' Barroso told Germany's Focus magazine, according to an extract of an interview distributed in advance of publication.

He said Moscow had to realise the interests of Poland were just as legitimate as those of France, Germany or Portugal.

Barroso's comments follow a frosty EU-Russia summit in Samara yesterday in which EU leaders refused to rein in some eastern European members involved in disputes with Russia under President Vladimir Putin.

Poland has blocked the start of talks between Russia and the EU on a new partnership agreement after Moscow imposed a ban on imports of Polish meat.

Russia has also accused Estonia of desecrating the memory of World War Two victims after it moved a Soviet-era war memorial and Lithuania is unhappy Russia has turned off an oil pipeline.

''Putin noticed (at the summit) that European unity is not to be broken,'' Barroso told Focus.

Russia and the EU also clashed over democracy at their summit as German Chancellor Angela Merkel criticised Russia for stopping some demonstrators attending a rally and Barroso pointed to the human rights situation in Russia.

''I don't understand why a country with that kind of security apparatus can't clear up the murder of journalists,'' he said.

The murder last year of investigative Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya, a fierce critic of Putin, drew worldwide condemnation. Putin has called the murder a disgusting crime and urged the police to find her killers as quickly as possible.

REUTERS AGL KP1739