Benita Ferrero-Waldner made the statement after talks between EU foreign ministers on Monday [AFP]

"We have found a good way to proceed," said Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the European Union external relations commissioner after talks between EU foreign ministers in Brussels.

Lithuania confirmed earlier on Monday that it remained opposed to starting the talks, aimed at upgrading a framework under which ties between Moscow and Brussels are governed.

But the commission has a mandate to resume the talks, frozen on September 1 over Russia's military action in Georgia, and does not require all 27 EU member states to endorse its move.

The ministers' meeting was aimed at ironing out differences ahead of an EU-Russia summit in Nice, southern France, on Friday.

"We will certainly find a date after the summit," Ferrero-Waldner said.

Opposition

Lithuania and Poland have voiced constant opposition to the idea, saying that Moscow has not complied with the terms of a peace deal which ended the short war in August.

While Russia has pulled its troops out of the heart of Georgia it still has several thousand massed in South Ossetia and another breakaway region, Abkhazia, both of which Moscow has recognised as independent states.

"Lithuania's position has not changed," a Lithuanian diplomat confirmed after the talks.

Poland, however, dropped its objections.

The new EU-Russia pact will cover political, economic and trade relations between Europe and its major energy supplier.

At present EU-Russian relations are governed by a 1997 partnership and co-operation agreement reached when a much weaker Russia was emerging from the break-up of the old Soviet Union.

The EU wants to include energy and security issues in the new pact.

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