(BRDO PRI KRANJU) - European foreign ministers on Friday welcomed Russia's president-elect Dmitri Medvedev's positive stance on ties and agreed to work towards a new partnership with Moscow.

"Even if I'm not expecting any major policy shifts, I think there is an opportunity and we should take it to open a new chapter in our partnership with Russia," said EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.

Talking to reporters at a meeting in Slovenia's Brdo Pri Kranju castle, she said Medvedev, who succeeds Vladimir Putin on May 7, had made positive remarks on the rule of law, economic modernisation and reducing the role of state.

However, she added: "We have to see if deeds will follow."

The 27 foreign ministers discussed the need for a common EU position ahead of negotiations with Moscow over a new "Partnership and Cooperation Agreement" (PCA) to be discussed at a EU-Russia summit in June.

Slovenian Foreign Minister Dimitrij Rupel, whose country holds the EU's rotating presidency, said the ministers agreed to set a mandate for talks with Russia by April so negotiations could start in the first half of the year.

The key date is an EU-Russia summit in Siberia on June 26-27.

"I hope that we will indeed see the adoption of the mandate by the Council very soon and I think after today's discussion I'm really optimistic," Ferrero-Waldner told journalists.

British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said the EU had moved on from "whether or not there should be a more strategic relationship (with Russia) to the nature of that strategic relationship."

"I felt that here was a European Union developing its confidence and its own sense of purpose in how to take forward its relationship with a Russia which is stronger and also more confident than it was five or ten years ago," he said.

Miliband and French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner presented a letter to their EU counterparts urging a united position in talks with Moscow in order to "open discussion quickly on a new PCA, for which we have a good mandate."

"The EU should place a premium on sending firm and consistent messages to the Russian leadership on all issues which affect our interests," argued the Miliband-Kouchner letter, seen by AFP.

The two-page letter also welcomed and supported Medvedev's agenda of promoting the rule of law in Russia but underlined that the EU "should judge Russia by her actions, not just by her words."

The British and French foreign ministers also stressed that Europe must improve the security of its energy supplies from Russia, which provides a large portion of EU nations' oil and gas needs.

EU's foreign policy chief Javier Solana also voiced optimism that negotiations with Russia could begin soon "using the chance to have a real partnership on an equal level".

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier also said he was encouraged by recent comments by Medvedev.

"The fact that he has spoken in favour of more market economy, for promoting civil liberties is certainly something surprising to us in the West," he told reporters in Brdo.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt echoed Steinmeier, saying that some of Medvedev's recent comments were well received, while stressing that it remained to be seen how those words would be translated into action.

Informal Meeting of EU Ministers of Foreign Affairs (Gymnich)

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