(MEXICO CITY) - The president of the European Commission on Monday hailed a deal between EU ministers to get Lithuania to lift its veto on launching talks on a new EU partnership accord with Russia.

"If all member states could now lend their support to the start of talks with Russia, it would be good," Jose Manuel Barroso said during a visit to Mexico ahead of an EU-Latin America summit in Lima, Peru on May 16 and 17.

"The European Commission has asked member states for a mandate to negotiate with Russia toward a new strategic association agreement," Barroso told a joint news conference with Mexican President Felipe Calderon.

"Russia is a very important partner for Europe," he said.

Lithuania, a former member of the old Soviet Union which became an EU member in 2004, last month vetoed EU attempts to kick off talks on a new "Partnership and Cooperation Agreement" with energy-rich and newly assertive Russia.

Vilnius first demanded that a string of issues be spelled out in the EU negotiating mandate, including Russia's active cooperation over energy supplies and the resolution of frozen conflicts in Georgia and Moldova.

Any EU member can block talks between the Union and other countries if it feels its national interests are being sidelined.

The foreign ministers of Sweden, Poland, Lithuania and Slovenia said Sunday after talks in Vilnius that an "agreement in principle" had been reached regarding Lithuania's demands.

Sunday's talks in Vilnius produced a deal in which Lithuania's demands were to be included in the mandate for the negotiations. That paved the way for Vilnius to lift its veto, provided all 27 EU members approve at a meeting on May 26.

The European Union hopes the talks can be launched at an EU-Russia summit in Siberia on June 26-27, when new President Dmitry Medvedev will represent Russia for the first time.

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