(BRUSSELS) - European Union nations on Tuesday gave a green light to opening new talks on a key partnership agreement with Russia, after Lithuania lifted its veto, an EU diplomat told AFP.

The diplomat said the decision, which still has to be formally ratified by each of the 27 EU member countries, had been taken at a meeting of their ambassadors in Brussels.

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.

The EU has been trying to update the existing accord -- a framework for Brussels-Moscow relations which is more than a decade old -- to take into account modern geo-political and economic realities.

But 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. Poland had previously held up progress in a row over meat exports.

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

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