RUSSIA: German Chancellor Angela Merkel who holds the European Union's rotating presidency, meets President Putin in Sochi to ease EU-Russia tensions

Merkel, who holds the European Union's rotating presidency, met Putin in Sochi, on the Black Sea coast on Sunday (January 21), two weeks after Moscow cut off oil supplies to northeast Europe, reviving old doubts about Russia's reliability as an energy supplier. A Russian ban on Polish meat imports has been tainting relations too. After failed talks this week, Warsaw said on Saturday as long as the ban remained it would keep vetoing talks on a new partnership agreement between Russia and the EU. The two leaders, still tentatively building relations after the hearty friendship between Putin and Merkel's predecessor Gerhard Schroeder, will also use the chancellor's one-day visit to coordinate efforts to revive the Middle East peace process. The EU's latest energy concerns were triggered when Moscow shut the Druzhba oil pipeline, which carries about 10 percent of Russia's crude exports to the bloc, because of a dispute with transit country Belarus. The pipeline was back in operation within days but the incident gave new vigour to a debate about energy security that had been bubbling in the EU since Moscow briefly cut off gas supplies to Europe almost exactly a year before. Merkel and other EU leaders say supplies would be more reliable if Russia ended its state monopoly over oil exports and natural gas -- something Putin says is not going to happen soon. Russia banned Polish meat imports citing safety concerns and now the EU has been drawn into the dispute. Last year the EU had the embarrassment of hosting Putin at a summit but being unable to start talks on a partnership pact because of the Polish veto. The EU is anxious to end the impasse and Merkel is expected to raise the issue with Putin in Sochi. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict is in focus because the so-called Quartet of international mediators -- the United States, the EU, Russia and the United Nations -- is expected to meet in Washington on Feb. 2 to try to revive peacemaking.

ITN Source | January 21, 2007

Tags:. .remained. .relations. .january. .efforts. .concerns