(VILNIUS) - Lithuania and Poland have agreed to coordinate their strategies on whether to agree further European talks on an EU-Russia partnership pact, Lithuania's government information bureau said Thursday.

Last month Vilnius unilaterally blocked further talks, demanding that a number of sensitive issues, including energy security and relations with Georgia, be included in the EU negotiating mandate.

Poland, which has previously held up negotiations in a meat export row with Russia, now has agreed to coordinate with the Lithuanian position.

"Lithuanian Prime Minister Gediminas Kirkilas and Polish Premier Donald Tusk in a telephone conversation discussed the situation on the mandate for the EU talks with Russia and agreed to coordinate their positions," the statement said.

"Kirkilas stressed that Lithuania, like other EU members, aims to begin the talks, but wants the mandate to include the issues discussed previously and not responded by Russia," it added.

Lithuania has demanded that a number of sensitive issues be included in the EU's negotiation mandate for talks with Russia on a new partnership agreement before giving its green light.

"The frozen conflicts in Georgia and Moldova, legal cooperation between the EU members and Russia, energy security issues are the common interest of all the EU and (Lithuania has) asked for Poland's support," the statement added.

It also said that Poland's Tusk understood Lithuania's position and accepted Kirkilas proposal to continue consultations on the EU mandate for talks with Russia.

Lithuania's fellow ex-communist 2004 EU newcomer Poland put the brakes on EU-Russia talks for more than a year because of a trade spat over meat exports with its Soviet-era overlord. However in March Warsaw dropped its objections after the trade dispute was resolved.

On April 29 Lithuania also refused to agree to a mandate for EU talks with Russia on new partnership pact. All of the EU's 27 members must approve the start of negotiations with non-member states.

The EU and Russia hold summits and working group discussions each year but their existing bilateral accord is based on a deal reached in 1997 when Russia was still in convalescence following the break-up of the Soviet Union.

The EU hopes the talks, bound to be long and arduous, can be launched at an EU-Russia summit in Siberia on June 26-27, when freshly installed President Dmitry Medvedev will represent Russia for the first time.

Lithuania could drop its objections at the next EU foreign ministers' meeting on May 26.

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