Lahti informal meeting of the European Council and Russia

Russian president Vladimir Putin has resisted EU pressure to sign up to an energy charter that would secure the bloc better access to his country's gas and oil fields saying further work was needed on the document. Brussels has been pushing for Moscow to sign up to the 1991 agreement amid fears that it is tightening its grip over the EU's energy supplies but at a summit in the Finnish town of Lahti yesterday (20 October) it came away empty handed.

"We are not against the principles that are included in the charter, but we believe that that certain provisions of the charter should be defined better," said Mr Putin. "I am quite confident that we will be in a position to develop common approaches," he continued referring to discussions between the two sides on renewing a partnership agreement between Moscow and Brussels.

For its part, the EU worked hard on presenting a united front before the Russian president with member states divided over to what extent they should criticise human rights violations and how pragmatic they need to be in light of their strong dependency on gas and oil supplies from their giant neighbour.