Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (file photo) (NATO)
November 22, 2006 -- Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov says a Polish veto on the launch of talks on a new partnership agreement with Russia will not wreck an EU-Russia summit to be held on November 24.
Poland wants Russia to lift a ban on Polish meat and some other food imports before it accepts a new agreement.
Lavrov was quoted today as saying that Russia needs the new partnership agreement "no more than the EU does."
Russian President Vladimir Putin, in an interview for the "Financial Times" newspaper published today, said some in Europe are trying to fit EU-Russian relations into the "obsolete model of 'friend or foe.'"
A Finnish spokesman said current the EU president, Finland, will come up with a proposal for a deal later in the day.
(compiled from agency reports)