Russia: World leaders have gathered in St Petersburg to celebrate the city's 300th anniversary and to try to heal the divisions within the international community caused by the war in Iraq, writes Denis Staunton in St Petersburg
Russia's President, Mr Vladimir Putin, will host a summit with EU leaders today and will tomorrow meet the US President, Mr George Bush.
Welcoming 25 leaders from the EU and the candidate countries and leaders from former Soviet republics yesterday, Mr Putin praised a €1.5 billion facelift the city has received in preparation for this weekend's events.
"We have striven to do everything so that you, in this circle of friends, will feel at home in the full sense of the word," he said.
The EU and Russia are expected to agree to establish a permanent partnership council similar to the NATO-Russia Council to improve economic co-operation, develop a new energy policy and discuss such issues as visa regulations and cultural and educational links.
Russia exports half of its oil and gas to the EU, and the EU's reliance on Russian energy supplies will rise even further after enlargement.
Diplomatic sources say that a joint statement will refer to Russia's war in Chechnya, praising the start of a political process as represented by the Russian parliament's approval last week of a limited amnesty for separatist fighters.
Mr Bush will join Mr Putin and EU leaders for dinner this evening, his first meeting with European leaders who opposed the war in Iraq since the conflict began.
The Commission President, Mr Romano Prodi, yesterday brought to St Petersburg Europe's internal divisions over its future, rejecting a charge by Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing that the Commission was trying to slow down the work of the Convention on the Future of Europe.
Mr Prodi said that the EU's new constitution should abolish national vetoes on foreign policy and tax issues and suggested that further reforms could be needed after the constitution is adopted.
"We must make our institutions more efficient by extending the majority voting to almost all areas of policy, including foreign and fiscal policy," he said.
"The new constitution must give our citizens an answer to the question who does what in Europe - without creating duplication of power. I realise that in some areas it may not be possible to reach final solutions at this stage. If this is the case the text should include an evolutionary clause to give the possibility of solving later whatever cannot be decided today," he said.
Germany's Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, warned the convention yesterday that, if the constitution failed to produce an adequate basis for the EU's future, small groups of European countries would move to integrate outside EU structures.
Meanwhile, Britain and Spain joined seven small countries, including Ireland, in a call for the constitution to leave unchanged the deal agreed at Nice on representation in the Commission, the Council of Ministers and the European Parliament.