Belarus foreign minister skipping EU summit: Poland

(WARSAW) - Belarus's authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko, left off the guest list of an EU summit with six ex-Soviet states, only wants to send his Warsaw ambassador instead, Poland said Wednesday.

"We're considering how to respond to this Belarussian proposal, because the invitation was addressed to the foreign ministry," Polish foreign ministry spokesman Marcin Bosacki told AFP.

Opting to have an ambassador rather than a foreign minister attend a summit is effectively a diplomatic snub.

Currently at the helm of the 27-nation European Union, Poland will decide on Thursday how to react to Belarus's decision to send its ambassador to the gathering, which starts the same day, Bosacki said.

At the EU's Brussels hub, a diplomatic source said the move was a sign of Lukashenko's "bad mood" over being banned from the EU due to his treatment of the Belarussian opposition.

Lukashenko, in power since 1994, launched a crackdown that was unprecedented even for his authoritarian regime after his landslide reelection in December prompted mass street protests.

The EU has already slapped a travel ban and assets freeze on almost 200 regime figures, as well as a number of companies, and is considering widening it.

The decision of senior EU leaders with meet with opposition representatives on the sidelines of the two-day summit may also have played a role, along with the likelihood that Belarus will face severe criticism in gathering's final statement.

"Belarus has ruled itself out the summit by itself," said a senior European diplomat.

Ex-communist Poland, which joined the EU in 2004, is one of the staunchest critics of the regime in neighbouring Belarus.

It has repeatedly said it wants to help spur reforms there and bring the country closer to the EU.

The broader goal of the Warsaw summit is to spur the Eastern Partnership, launched in 2009 with the aim of boosting EU economic and political ties with ex-Soviet Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.