BELGIUM:CALLS GREW louder yesterday for Russia to face greater international isolation because of its invasion of Georgia. The rising clamour came as European leaders prepared for an emergency summit on the Caucasus crisis and to review the basis of Europe's relations with Russia, writes Ian Traynorin Brussels.
French president Nicolas Sarkozy, who negotiated a ceasefire agreement between Moscow and Tbilisi, has convened the first EU emergency summit since February 2003 - in the run-up to the Iraq war - in order to concentrate the minds of leaders on their policies towards Moscow.
British prime minister Gordon Brown adopted a tough position, indicating that Russia's membership of the G8 grouping of big industrial democracies could be frozen, an option that found some support from Germany.
France is worried that any tough action agreed by 27 European leaders at this afternoon's summit in Brussels will provoke Russian retaliation and undermine its chances of playing the peacemaker.
Russia showed no signs of flinching as President Dmitry Medvedev said Moscow would sign deals providing military aid to Georgia's breakaway provinces.
Russian prime minister Vladimir Putin dared Europe to make the first move, telling Russian television: "If any of the European countries wants to serve someone's narrow political interests, then go ahead. We cannot stop them. But we think, as they say in such cases, 'you have to look out for number one'. "
Diplomats and analysts say the EU meeting is unlikely to bring about any radical movement in Europe's relations with Russia, but that temporary diplomatic penalties could be approved, such as having a G8 meeting without Russia, or postponing talks between Brussels and Moscow on a new long-term agreement.
In an article in The Observer, Gordon Brown delivered his toughest message on Moscow to date, following last week's broadside condemning Russian behaviour by his foreign secretary, David Miliband, in a speech in the Ukraine capital, Kiev.
"In the light of Russian actions, the EU should review, root and branch, our relationship with Russia," said Mr Brown. Russia's unilateral action in recognising the independence of Georgia's two breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia was "dangerous and unacceptable".
Mr Brown said he had told the Russian president at the weekend to "expect a determined European response".
A senior figure in Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic party also called for Russia's membership of the G8 to be frozen, but divisions in the German government reflect the splits evident at European level, with foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier opposing action that might escalate the crisis. "We need a strong and considered European role to return to reason and responsibility," he said.
Rather than sanctions against Russia, today's summit is more likely to offer stronger support for Georgia in its conflict with Moscow, pledging reconstruction aid, easier visas for travel to Europe, greater trade and pledges on Georgia's territorial integrity.
It is also likely to open a longer process of rethinking EU policies towards Russia. Officials in Brussels said a single meeting was unlikely to decide on "radical changes".
The summit will demand that Moscow, too, restore respect for Georgia's borders, meaning Russia would need to take the highly unlikely step of reversing its recognition of the two breakaway regions.
Ahead of the summit Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili said: "I expect that Europe won't give up faced with this dirty attempt at aggression."
Mr Sarkozy's letter to European leaders said that the meeting had to agree "a clear and united" message to Moscow. "It's up to Russia to make a fundamental choice in this respect," said Mr Sarkozy.
However, the core problem EU leaders must contend with is Europe's vulnerability since the Union depends on Russia for a third of its oil and 40 per cent of its gas. Mr Brown said this dependency had to be broken.
"We risk sleepwalking into an energy dependence on less stable or reliable partners."
Mary Fitzgerald, Foreign Affairs Correspondent adds: Taoiseach Brian Cowen and Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin will travel to Brussels to attend the special EU summit on Georgia.
The three-hour meeting will be marked with a pledge by EU member states of more aid for humanitarian efforts in the troubled region. When the crisis in Georgia erupted last month, Irish Aid, the Government's overseas development division, announced that it was providing €100,000 to the International Committee of the Red Cross to assist in relief efforts there.
It is understood Ireland will pledge a further €150,000 in assistance for Georgia at today's summit.
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