EU threatens to postpone talks on Russian pact

By Darren Ennis and Marcin Grajewski

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European Union leaders agreed on Monday to postpone talks with Russia on a new partnership pact scheduled for later this month if Moscow has not withdrawn its troops to pre-conflict positions in Georgia by then.

The decision at an emergency summit in Brussels came after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov hailed Moscow's military intervention over the breakaway South Ossetia conflict as setting a new standard for defending its national interests.

The EU move was a bid to bridge national differences on how to deal with Russia and to send a warning shot to Moscow despite shying away from sanctions on its largest energy supplier.

"The return of spheres of influence is not acceptable. Yalta is over," French President Nicolas Sarkozy told a news conference, referring to the 1945 major powers' meeting in the Crimea which helped shape post-World War Two Europe.

Sarkozy said he would travel with other EU officials to Moscow on September 8 to discuss its adherence to a French-brokered peace plan, and then decide whether partnership talks set for Sept 15-16 in Brussels could go ahead as planned.

"We will ask Russia to apply the six-point plan scrupulously," he said of the plan to end hostilities after Russia crushed a Georgian attempt to take back South Ossetia.

The final summit statement also condemned Russia's move to recognize the independence of South Ossetia and breakway Abkhazia and urged other countries not to follow suit.

The new EU-Russia accord is due to regulate relations in the energy sector and on trade. The EU struggled for 18 months to agree its own mandate for talks which finally started this July.

Russia's envoy to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, told reporters he was disappointed by Monday's summit but added: "We don't need these talks or this new agreement any more than the EU does...It is more a self-punishment for the EU because it doesn't improve its credibility as a trading partner."

Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze told reporters in Brussels he welcomed "the firm and principled" EU stance.

RUSSIAN SIGNAL

France, Germany and Italy insisted at the summit that tougher action against Russia would be premature while Britain and several ex-communist eastern nations urged the EU to suspend talks for the so-called partnership and cooperation (PCA).

"There are politicians, also in Europe, who would prefer empty conclusions because of their intensive bilateral relations with Russia," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk complained.

Moscow has withdrawn most of its forces in line with a ceasefire deal but has kept soldiers in "security zones", which include Georgian territory around South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Russian President Dmitry Medvedev told Sarkozy by telephone on Sunday that Russia was prepared to pull back troops to pre-conflict positions.