Thaw in EU-Russia tensions after Nice talks

The French president has urged both Russia and the United States to freeze proposed missile deployment in Europe, during an EU-Russia summit which signalled a thaw in relations after the Georgia war.

The summit - the first since the EU suspended relations with Moscow two months ago after the six-day war - confirmed that the 27-nation EU would resume partnership and cooperation talks with Russia, although no date was set. The decision was taken despite Russia's failure to withdraw troops completely from Georgian territory in line with a peace agreement.

Referring to President Dmitry Medvedev's announcement that Russia would deploy Iskander missiles in Russia's Baltic enclave of Kaliningrad to counter a US missile shield being installed in Poland and the Czech Republic, the French president, Nicolas Sarkozy said he told the Russian leader that "there should be no deployment in any enclave until we have discussed new geopolitical conditions for pan-European security."

Mr Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency until the end of the year, said Mr Medvedev supported his proposal for pan-European security talks in mid-2009. "Between now and then, don't talk about deployment of a missile shield, which does nothing to bring security and complicates things," he said.

The Russian president told a news conference after the summit in Nice: "We urge all to refrain from unilateral steps which influence security until the new pact is signed."

The Belarus president, Alexander Lukashenko, yesterday told the Wall St Journal that Russia had proposed stationing the short-range Iskander missiles in his country, which is situated between Russia and Poland.