March 02, 2007	Friday	Safar 12, 1428

BRUSSELS, March 1: Brussels has accepted an invitation for talks in Moscow in the hope of solving a long-running row over a Russian embargo of Polish foodstuffs, an EU offical said Thursday.

Russian food health inspectors completed an investigatory visit to Poland last week and Moscow sent the European Commission a letter earlier this week inviting it to talks "as soon as possible after March 12", said Philip Tod, spokesman for the EU's health commissioner.

He added that the Russian side had offered no opinion on its veterinary and crops inspections, aimed at evaluating the state of Polish meat and crops.

However after the meat inspections last month, Russian veterinary inspectors expressed shock at EU meat exportation practices, according to a Russian official.

The Russian veterinarians, who in the company of EU colleagues inspected Polish meat export facilities from Feb 12-16, were shocked by "the way the products are moved from one country to another within the European Union, then labeled as products from the latter country before being exported to Russia," the source in Moscow said.

Russia imposed an embargo on Polish meat in November 2005, alleging fraud in the implementation of safety standards by Polish authorities. Poland argues that Moscow is playing politics because of differences with the conservative government in Warsaw.Angered by the embargo, Poland has since last November blocked the launch of talks between Russia and the EU on a new broad economic cooperation agreement aimed among other things at securing a reliable flow to Europe from Russia's massive oil and gas fields.—AFP