(BRUSSELS) - The European Union and Russia held their first talks Friday on a sweeping new "strategic partnership" aimed at redefining their ties, settling some planning issues but leaving aside contentious subjects.

Officials who took part described the talks, which lasted around two-and-a-half hours in Brussels and come a week after the prcess was launched in Serbia, as "positive" and "constructive."

The partnership is meant to replace an existing one from 1997, taking into account new political, economic and energy realities between a bigger European Union and a more powerful, assertive Russia.

But the talks have been delayed for two years by objections from former eastern bloc countries Poland, over a meat embargo, and Lithuania, largely because of a dispute over energy and Russia's policies on Georgia.

The negotiators agreed to set up four working groups: political and external security; justice and liberty, including human rights; trade, investment and energy; and education, culture and research and development, said the European Commission's external relations chief Eneko Landaburu.

Negotiators will meet roughly every six weeks, with the next talks scheduled for September and October, ahead of an EU summit in the southern French city of Nice in mid-November.

Differences remain, however, over the scope of the agreement.

Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, said Friday that Moscow wants a legally-binding central framework, with accords that would then be worked out for each sector.

Landaburu said that "the whole question will be to work out what we put in the central agreement."

He said that technical issues could be relegated to separate accords but that the central agreement must enter "into enough detail" to "engage the Russians."

A fresh EU-Russia agreement is deemed key to improving ties which soured under former president Vladimir Putin, who is now Prime Minister, as well as ensuring a reliable energy supply from Russia and reviewing human rights.

European nations have become increasingly concerned at their dependence on Russian fossil fuels and Moscow's willingness to turn off the natural gas taps in case of dispute.

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