Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday he had received signals from the European Union that talks on a new partnership agreement will start soon, despite Lithuanian threats to veto the negotiations this week.

Talks on the wide-ranging pact covering trade, justice and political links are to be launched at an EU-Russia summit at the end of June in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, if the European side can agree to it.

"If what our EU colleagues are hinting at comes about, then we can start these negotiations in the nearest future, and announce it during the summit in Khanty-Mansiysk," Interfax news agency quoted Lavrov as saying.

EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the matter tomorrow but an agreement is in jeopardy after Lithuania signalled strong reservations.

Lithuania can block the unanimity required amongst the 27-member states. It wants an EU negotiating mandate to take account of its concerns over energy supplies from Russia and co-operation with Moscow over investigating crime.

Lavrov is due to meet an EU troika made up of the bloc's current Slovenian presidency and the European Commission, in Luxembourg tomorrow after the foreign ministers' meeting to prepare the summit agenda.

The EU-Russia negotiations were to have been launched in November 2006 but Poland vetoed the mandate after Moscow barred imports of fresh food products from Warsaw. Poland has said it will not now block the talks.

In Moscow, news agencies quoted other senior Russian diplomats as saying they are confident the talks will start soon, even if an agreement on a mandate is not finalised this week.