(BRUSSELS) - The European Union resumed key partnership talks with Russia on Tuesday, aimed at boosting economic and diplomatic ties three months after they were frozen in the wake of the Georgia conflict.

The European Commission's lead negotiator Eneko Landaburu met, away from the cameras, for two hours with Russia's EU ambassador Vladimir Chizhov in Brussels to relaunch the talks which were frozen on September 1 in protest at Moscow's actions in Georgia.

The negotiations are aimed at forging an overarching framework to manage the EU and Russia's diplomatic and commercial ties and ensure constant supplies of Russian oil and gas.

"We discussed in some detail the structure of the future accord and we have fixed the next steps," Chizhov told the Russian Ria-Novosti agency after the talks.

There was no word from Landaburu and no date announced for the next meeting.

It was a good day for Moscow diplomatically, with NATO nations agreeing to gradually resume high-level talks with Russia, which were also frozen over the August conflict in the Caucasus.

NATO foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, decided on a return to informal meetings of the so-called NATO-Russia Council, despite concern that Moscow is still not respecting a ceasefire that ended its brief war with Georgia.

EU and NATO members, led by France and Germany, are keen to resume contacts with Russia, which is a major supplier of European natural gas and oil.

The EU-Russia strategic partnership talks had opened in July, with just one round of formal negotiations before they were frozen after the short war in Georgia.

Russian tanks rolled into its former fiefdom in August and Moscow subsequently recognised as independent the breakaway Georgian provinces of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

An extraordinary EU summit on September 1 decided to freeze the talks with leaders repeating the mantra that "it cannot be business as usual" given the military events.

It was not until November 10, just ahead of an EU-Russia summit, that the 27-member block took the decision to resume the talks, despite the dissenting voice of Lithuania.

No one knows how long the wide-ranging negotiations will take as they will include everything from justice to immigration, human rights and education.

Landaburu has pointedly refused to set a calendar.

"That depends on the will of both sides," he told AFP, saying that he expected to meet Chizhov every six to eight weeks.

After the meeting Chizhov was similarly non-committal. "There is nothing more dangerous for this process than to fix an artificial date for achieving it," he said.

For Landaburu the Georgia conflict and Russia's recognition of South Ossetia and Abkhazia will not put the brakes on the talks as these issues are being discussed by Moscow and Tbilisi in separate talks in Geneva.

He believes the problems will be encountered in the economic field, particularly on the fundamental issue of reliable energy supplies from Russia which "could be the most difficult" topic.

However the EU negotiator insisted that the resumption of the talks did not constitute a normalisation of relations with Moscow as major differences remain over Georgia, which has ambitions to join both the EU and NATO.

"We are resuming the discussions because it is in the interests of both sides," he said.

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