Medvedev wants "serious" pact with EU

By David Schlesinger and Oleg Shchedrov

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia seeks a "serious" pact with the European Union reaffirming it as part of Europe, President Dmitry Medvedev told Reuters ahead of a Russia-EU summit in Siberia.

The summit starting on Thursday in Khanty-Mansiysk is expected to launch long-delayed talks on a partnership agreement governing relations between Russia and the EU.

"It must be a serious document but at the same time not burdened with absolutely concrete things," Medvedev said in the interview with Reuters, his first to Western media since taking office in May.

Russia wants a brief, legally binding pact followed by a string of more detailed agreements to prevent trade and business issues from being affected by political disputes, Medvedev's foreign policy adviser Sergei Prikhodko said.

Medvedev will meet EU officials just 7 weeks after taking over from his powerful predecessor and ally Vladimir Putin, who has presided for 8 years over Russia's biggest economic boom in a generation.

Putin's aggressive drive to reassert Russia's political and economic clout in Europe and elsewhere in the world and to limit Western influence at home have strained relations with many EU members, some of whom are former Soviet allies.

Medvedev, who has pledged to continue Putin's course, signaled a less confrontational course with Europe.

"In terms of priorities for the relationship between Russia and the European Union -- this is a relationship between the Russian Federation, a major European state which defines itself and conducts itself as part of Europe, and the European Union," he told Reuters.

EU officials say they like the softer tone from the new man in the Kremlin but want to see whether that translates into genuine change.

"We see ... encouraging signs but obviously it is a new president in a new position with his ambitions and we need to find out how he wants to implement these policy aims," one EU official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

"So while we welcome the announcements we are very interested in hearing about the ways he is going to go about this."

PILE OF PROBLEMS

When meeting in Siberia with Slovenian Prime Minister Janez Jansa, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner and the EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana, Medvedev will have to deal with a pile of problems left over from the previous rule.

Apart from a range of commercial disputes from timber export duties to overflight rights, Europe fears Russia could use its energy might as a political weapon. Russia, in turn, complains about European protectionism.

On top of this, relations are marred by political disagreements on issues ranging from EU worries about eroding democracy in Russia to Moscow's support for separatists in Georgia's breakaway provinces.