Last November, EU newcomer Poland vetoed talks on a new Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) between Moscow and Brussels to replace the current pact, which expires in late 2007, over a Russian ban on meat and other agricultural imports from Poland. Moscow cited health concerns, but Warsaw said the move was political.
"If our concerns are removed within the time that remains before the summit in Russia, a 'green light' will be given for preparations to start the talks on the new Big Treaty between Russia and the EU," President Vladimir Putin's special envoy on relations with the EU, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, said.
He said both Russia and the EU want to resolve the issue as soon as possible.
The PCA between Russia and the EU was signed June 24, 1994 in Corfu, Greece. The document entered into force December 1, 1997. It is valid for 10 years and will be extended further if the two sides deem it useful and necessary. Russia has repeatedly voiced the necessity to start talks.
Yastrzhembsky said Russia cannot make further concessions in the Polish meat supply issue.
"We cannot do more than we have done, because we don't want to poison our population with poor-quality production," he said.
Russia imposed an embargo on Polish meat in November 2005 claiming that meat from third countries was being imported under the cover of Polish produce.
Poland sees Russian sanctions as retaliation for Warsaw's backing of the 2004 "orange revolution" in Ukraine, which brought pro-Western forces to power in the country.
Relations between Russia and Poland, a former Communist Bloc country that joined the EU in May 2004, have deteriorated dramatically in the past few years.
A string of recent diplomatic spats has increased mutual distrust between the two neighbors, prompting many politicians in Warsaw to conclude that the Kremlin is using the embargo on Polish imports as a political weapon.
