(BRUSSELS) - Despite months of efforts, the EU has failed to allay Moscow's concerns about the safety of Polish food exports, which have led to a Russian embargo, a spokesman in Brussels said Tuesday.

European Union and Russian experts met in Moscow on Tuesday in an attempt to resolve the dispute which has threatened to expand into a broader EU-wide embargo and has stalled talks on a new cooperation accord between Brussels and Moscow.

"We are disappointed that more progress has not been made during these talks, but we were not expecting a breakthrough," said European Commission spokesman for food safety issues Philip Tod.

In Moscow, Russian authorities confirmed that an agreement had not been reached.

A new meeting would be scheduled "for the coming weeks," Tod said without being able to give more detail.

After a first round of talks in the Russian capital on Monday, Moscow provided a list of its perceived "deficiencies" following investigations by Russian veterinary and sanitary inspectors in Poland on its production and distribution of meat and some crops.

Earlier Tuesday, Tod said EU experts were reviewing the Russian qualms "point by point" but "none of the deficiencies are endemic nor do they justify a trade embargo."

Russia imposed an embargo on Polish meat in November 2005, alleging fraud in the implementation of safety standards by Polish authorities.

Poland argues that Moscow is playing politics because of differences with the conservative government in Warsaw.

Angered by the embargo, Poland has since last November blocked the launch of talks between Russia and the EU on a new broad economic cooperation agreement aimed among other things at securing a reliable flow to Europe from Russia's massive oil and gas fields.

Russia has also threatened to broaden the embargo to ban EU animal products from another five or six EU nations unless the Europeans provide quality control papers for exports outside of the EU by the end of March.

The Russians have listed dozens of cases of salmonella found in shipments from Belgium, France, Germany and the Netherlands, and said there were "frequent cases" of "sub-standard meat products" being exported to Russia.

Tod said that the Russian request for quality control papers was "not unreasonable" adding that such paperwork was required by the EU from third countries but added that Moscow had not requested it previously.

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