EU presidency happy to tackle Putin at summit

The 25 EU leaders will host Russian President Vladimir Putin for the first time on Friday, hoping to deepen trade ties and ensure access to energy, while promising not to avoid human rights issues.

"We understood when we invited President Putin that of course it would take the most publicity from the summit," said Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen, who will host a dinner for the Kremlin leader in Finland.

He sees no problem in talking about enhanced trade, market access and transparency on the one hand and human rights, Russia's treatment of Georgians and the murder of Russian journalist, Anna Politkovskaya, on the other.

"To the EU, our policy is one package, there are positive economic questions and also human rights questions, there is no problem to discuss all these things together," he said in a televised press conference Wednesday.

Putin's involvement will allow the European Union to consider a new expanded Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) to replace the current one which expires late next year.

The meeting also comes ahead of a formal EU-Russia summit on November 24.

Separately on the agenda in Lahti, Finland, are the issues of innovation, including patent law and a planned new European Institute of Technology, and energy, a field were Russia also looms large as the big provider of Europe's energy needs.

Migration and the problems in Darfur will also be brought up.

However it is the dinner with Putin which has taken all the headlines, and not all the things on the menu will be equally digestible to the Russian leader.

EU foreign ministers on Tuesday voiced grave concern at Russia's treatment of Georgia.

In conclusions from a meeting in Luxembourg, the ministers expressed "grave concern at the measures adopted by the Russian Federation against Georgia and at their economic, political and humanitarian consequences".

They further urged Moscow "not to pursue measures targeting Georgians in the Russian Federation", while calling on both parties "to work towards a normalisation of relations".

European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who will attend the informal summit, has said he will urge Putin to ensure that those who murdered Politkovskaya be prosecuted, adding that Moscow's "credibility" was at stake.

The journalist, murdered outside her home this month, won fame at home and abroad for her persistent and often harrowing reporting of atrocities by Russian forces and Chechen militias in Chechnya, as well as corruption within the armed forces.

On energy, where there is no comprehensive EU policy, Putin will be coaxed further towards market forces, transparency and reciprocity of market access.

All EU officials were anxious to stress that in the field of energy, and elsewhere, Russia and the European Union are interdependent.

"Russia has all the interest of keeping the EU as its most important consumer ... we are the biggest buyers of energy," said Barroso.

"Russia needs the EU as much as the EU needs Russia," echoed Finnish ambassador Eikka Kosonen, citing particularly investment.

He said that the hot topics of Iran, North Korea and Kosovo were not on the menu, saying there was not time to discuss everything.

The dinner will be afforded extra relish by the inclusion of the 10 newest EU members, many of them former eastern bloc states who support putting more pressure on Russia over rights issues.

Russia has in recent months caused some concern among Europeans, and not only because of energy.

Russian companies have not hid their desire to enter the EU market.

Last month a Russian bank bought a five percent stake in the European defence and aeronautics giants EADS, and Moscow has admitted seeking a minority blocking share, a goal opposed by the French and Germans.

Moscow has also been flexing its muscles with former Soviet satellites who have moved towards NATO, EU or the West in general.