Poland on Friday offered talks with Russia on solving a trade dispute that is behind Warsaw's veto of European Union negotiations on a new partnership with Moscow, AP reported. «If Russia would like to talk with us about this, we are ready to talk,» Polish Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski said at a news conference called to explain Poland's veto. Kaczynski suggested that Poland wanted stronger backing from the EU, which it joined in 2004, in demanding that Russia lift a yearlong import ban on Polish meat and grain products. «We are awaiting a clear position on the part of the EU, but even better: a clear position from Russia,» Kaczynski said. «The best solution could come from Moscow, meaning that Moscow would stop the discrimination,» Kaczynski said. «But nothing suggests this now.» «We will be patient but we will also defend our interests.» Warsaw's veto wrecked plans for EU leaders to begin negotiating a new partnership agreement with Russia on Friday when they met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Helsinki, Finland. The EU wants a new agreement to replace a 1997 deal.
