(BRUSSELS) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was "not surprised" that talks in Geneva on Georgia broke down before they started Wednesday, saying he would not give up on the process.

The internationally-backed peace talks between Georgia and Russia broke down with the rivals, who fought a war in August, blaming each other for the failure to even enter the same room.

"The opposite would have been surprising," Sarkozy told a press conference after the first day of an EU summit in Brussels.

"It's October 15, two months on," from the conflict, he stressed. "It's begun painfully, I'm sure, but we can't give up."

More generally Sarkozy, whose country holds the EU presidency, said he was in favour of "discussion and dialogue with Russia," without stating whether he would like to see the swift resumption of frozen EU-Russia talks on a new partnership deal.

It seems "more intelligent and interesting to talk with our neighbour Russia in a transparent and responsible way," he added, notably on questions of the Russian energy supplies upon which Europeans are highly dependent.

"I ask myself whether it would be prudent to create the conditions for a clash between Europe and Russia."

The negotiations, with Moscow, which began in July, were frozen at the beginning of September until Russian forces withdrew to the positions they held before the outbreak of hostilities with Georgia in early August.

Several countries, including Britain, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Lithuania, Poland and Sweden, have said it is too early to launch back into them.

They want to wait until an EU-Russia summit in Nice, France on November 14 to see how tensions in the Caucasus region play out, and the way international talks, starting in Geneva Wednesday, evolve.

Earlier in the day Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi took the idea of engaging with Russia a step further when he said that in addition to the European Union resuming talks with Moscow on a strategic agreement, Russia should be allowed to join the EU.

"I consider Russia to be a Western country and my plan is for the Russian Federation to be able to become a member of the European Union in the coming years," he said.

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