Brussels - Georgian Prime Minister Lado Gurgenidze thanked the European Union for its support Tuesday and called for closer ties with Brussels.
"What Georgia needs is to consolidate the gains we have made through tightened integration (with the EU)," Gurgenidze said after talks in Brussels with the EU's external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The meeting came a day after EU leaders reached out to Georgia by promising to start negotiations on a free-trade area and on granting visa facilitation to Georgian nationals.
At their emergency summit, EU heads of state and government also threatened to suspend talks on a new partnership agreement with Russia because of its refusal to comply with the six-point peace plan.
Brussels - The European Union will not approve sanctions against Russia but will instead discuss sending economic aid and a civilian mission to Georgia, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said ahead of an emergency meeting of the bloc's leaders Monday.
"I think sanctions are not on the agenda today," Solana said after holding talks in Brussels with visiting Georgian Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze.
The EU is split on the issue of sanctions, with Poland and the Baltic states on one side insisting that the EU should punish Russia, and France, Germany and Italy saying instead that dialogue with Moscow is the best way forward.
Warsaw - A majority of Poles wants the European Union (EU) to introduce political and economic sanctions against Russia at its emergency summit on the Caucasus crisis, according a poll published Monday in the daily Dziennik.
Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said that sanctions against Russia are not on the agenda for Monday's EU emergency summit in Brussels. Fillon instead called for dialogue with Moscow.
The meeting, due to begin at 3 pm Brussels time (1300 GMT), had been called to find a common EU position on the issues arising from in the Georgia conflict in August. Sanctions had been widely discussed as one way to reign in an increasingly assertive Russia.
However, Fillon said "Russia is a very large country that matters."
Berlin - The Federation of German Industries (BDI) said Monday it was opposed to sanctions being imposed on Russia over the conflict in Georgia and called for dialogue rather than confrontation.
The BDI issued its call as European Union (EU) leaders prepared to hold an extraordinary summit in Brussels to discuss the bloc's response to the crisis in the Southern Caucasus.
Proposals to put Russia under pressure through sanctions or to halt World Trade Organization (WTO) accession talks or partnership with the European Union (EU) "lead in the wrong direction," BDI President Juergen Thumann said.
"We would all lose if this were to happen," Thumann said.
Mos
Warsaw - A majority of Poles wants the European Union (EU) to introduce political and economic sanctions against Russia at its emergency summit on the Caucasus crisis, according a poll published Monday in the daily Dziennik.
Paris - French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has said that sanctions against Russia are not on the agenda for Monday's EU emergency summit in Brussels. Fillon instead called for dialogue with Moscow.
