SLOVENIA:EUROPEAN FOREIGN ministers meeting in Slovenia yesterday were unable to present a united response to calls to boycott the Beijing Olympics' opening ceremony over Chinese actions in Tibet.
The thorny issue will top the agenda again this morning after talks yesterday which ministers said had "moved the EU closer to a new strategic partnership" with Russia.
During talks on the Middle East yesterday, Germany announced a conference in Berlin next June to co-ordinate EU assistance for building up Palestinian police and justice services.
German foreign minister Frank Walter Steinmeier said in Brdo, outside Ljubljana, that neither he nor chancellor Angela Merkel would attend the Olympic Games opening ceremony in Beijing.
He denied that the absence counted as a boycott as neither had planned to attend.
"In that sense there is nothing to cancel," he said.
Varied responses emerged from other European foreign ministers as the day wore on: Poland and the Czech Republic will not be represented at the opening ceremony; France is keeping its options open; Britain will attend.
EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said it was too soon to decide on a boycott of the August games but that the EU had to send three clear messages to Beijing: that "everybody's culture should be recognised; that we completely accept Chinese territorial questions; and that this all has to be resolved peacefully".
Slovenian prime minister Janez Jansa said yesterday that the EU "should find a common answer" to the question.
Minister for Foreign Affairs Dermot Ahern said the Cabinet had yet to discuss the attendance of Irish officials.
It was "over-optimistic" to expect a common European position, he said, but he hoped China could resolve the issue in a "democratic way".
Mr Ahern briefed his European colleagues on the progress towards the Irish referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He said he was not concerned that questions surrounding the Taoiseach's personal finances might cloud the referendum debate and result.
"I'm not sure the European colleagues know about the Taoiseach's difficulties," he said. "We won't be trying to link it or confuse it. I don't think we should not have a referendum because of a fear people were not able to extricate different issues. Ireland is much more of a democratic country than that."
Ministers said following afternoon talks that the union was close to reviving relations with Russia, strained in recent years by differences of opinion among EU members about how to address energy, defence and civil rights issues.
"We have made progress and now think we are approaching the end of the debate," said Dimitrij Rupel, the foreign minister of Slovenia, current holder of the rotating EU presidency.
The start of talks on a new Partnership and Co-operation Agreement with Moscow was vetoed by Poland after Russia banned Polish meat imports. Lithuania was unhappy, too, that oil supplies to one of its refineries were halted last year after it was sold to a Polish company and not its Russian rival.
Ministers said yesterday that this opposition has faded: Poland has since resolved the import ban and Lithuanian officials said yesterday it was "not in our interests" to block the start of negotiations.
Even Britain, despite recent diplomatic difficulties with Russia, voiced optimism that a fresh start was possible with the new Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev.
"We have to make sure that no stone is left unturned," said the British foreign secretary, David Miliband.
"There is a potential for a partnership of equals, not the partnership of, on the one hand the supplicant and, on the other hand, someone in the dominating position," he added.