EU states seek to end divisions on Russia and Serbia

By David Brunnstrom

LUXEMBOURG (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers will seek on Tuesday to overcome differences holding up greater EU ties with Russia and Serbia.

Most countries in the 27-member bloc are anxious to begin early talks on a wide-ranging trade and political partnership agreement with energy-rich Russia, while good ties with Belgrade are seen as vital to Balkan stability.

But the Russian talks are stalled by the former Soviet republic of Lithuania's demand for assurances on Russian energy, judicial and foreign policy.

The Netherlands and Belgium are holding up a pact with Serbia to insist it do more to hunt war crime indictees from the Balkan conflicts of the 1990s.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov was upbeat about the chances of Lithuania dropping its objections and allowing the start of partnership talks soon, and certainly in time for an EU-Russia summit in Siberia in June.

"If what our EU colleagues are hinting at comes about, then we can start these negotiations in the nearest future, and announce it during the summit in Khanty-Mansiysk," Russia's Interfax news agency quoted him as saying of the EU discussions.

Lithuania can block the unanimity required among the 27 member states. It wants an EU negotiating mandate to take account of its concerns over energy supplies from Russia and cooperation from Moscow in investigating crime.

It also wants a Russian commitment to solving so-called frozen conflicts in breakaway areas in other former Soviet republics, notably Georgia and Moldova.

PUSHING HARD

Lavrov is due to meet his EU counterparts after their talks on Tuesday night, and EU President Slovenia is pushing hard for a deal on the mandate for EU-Russia talks before the encounter.

"We have all kinds of interests with the Russian Federation, the Russian Federation is a very serious partner of the EU and I think I am speaking in the name of the majority of the EU members, so we have to find a compromise there too," Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitri Rupel told reporters in Luxembourg.

EU states will discuss how they can encourage pro-EU moderates in Serbia's May 11 election, in which radicals are seen benefiting from public dismay over Kosovo's Western-backed secession on February 17.

The vast majority of states favor signing a so-called Stabilisation and Association Agreement (SAA) -- a first step to future membership -- with Belgrade before the poll, but the Netherlands and Belgium have been blocking that step for months.

The two countries signaled last week they could accept a signing of the SAA in June as long as Belgrade did not benefit from any of the trade or other advantages of such a move until it showed it was serious in tracking war crimes suspects.

On Monday, Rupel cast doubt over the viability of this compromise, calling the situation "complicated", after talks with Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremic.

EU foreign ministers will also discuss how the bloc can apply more pressure on Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe to publish delayed election results, although diplomats acknowledge their leverage on the African country is limited.