No quick fix in Polish meat dispute: Russian official

(MOSCOW) - Russia has "little hope" that its embargo on Polish meat exports that has strained Russia-EU ties will be solved by the end of the year, a Russian veterinary official said Wednesday.

"In April we asked that Poland allow us inspect the companies affected by the restrictions," Alexei Alexeyenko, a spokesman for Russia's veterinary control agency, Rosselkhoznadzor, told AFP. "But so far we have not received an answer. Our inspectors cannot reach them."

Russian sanitary experts have been inspecting Polish meat processing plants since November 13, but they are not investigating the enterprises affected by the embargo, Alexeyenko said.

In October the Kremlin official in charge of EU relations, Sergei Yastrzhembsky, suggested that Poland's acceptance of November inspections represented a breakthrough in the dispute, a suggestion denied in Warsaw.

In November 2005 Russia imposed an embargo on imports of raw meat and carcasses from Poland, alleging that Poland was not properly applying veterinary control standards.

Poland, which claimed that the ban was groundless and purely political, responded by blocking the start of crucial talks between the rest of the 27-nation EU and Russia to renew a decade-old partnership and cooperation agreement.