Poland is losing around one million euros (1.28 million U.S. dollars) daily due to Russia's embargo on imports of Polish meat, meat products and agri-products, Deputy Prime Minister and Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper said on Tuesday.

The Polish side had done everything possible on this issue, Lepper was quoted by the PAP news agency as saying.

Lepper said an EU inspection in July revealed only minor phitosanitary weaknesses. He added that these had now been eliminated and the results of the EU ongoing inspection would be available on Thursday.

If the present inspection did not reveal any weaknesses, Russia would have no grounds to prolong its embargo on Polish food, he said.

The deputy PM said Russia did not have to open its borders immediately but it had to define when the embargo would be lifted.

Russia also had another way out. It might choose not to start talks with the EU, which were planned for the end of this week, and then the partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia would be automatically prolonged by one year, he said.

In November 2005, Russia imposed a ban on imports of Polish meat and meat products.

Poland says it will oppose the launching of negotiations on a new partnership and cooperation agreement between the EU and Russia until the import embargo is lifted.

The current agreement on partnership and cooperation between Russia and the EU became effective in 1997, and will expire next year. The launch of negotiations on a new one has to be approved by all EU member states first.

Source: Xinhua