By David Brunnstrom
BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European states urged the United States on Tuesday to agree to an early relaunch of NATO ties with Russia that were scaled backed after Moscow's August war with Georgia.
The calls came as the 27-member European Union resumed talks on a broad-ranging partnership pact with Moscow, reflecting a broad acceptance that any attempt to isolate a key trade and energy partner would damage European interests.
At a meeting of NATO foreign ministers, Germany led resistance to U.S. moves to advance the membership aspirations of ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia, whose ambitions to join the Western military alliance have enraged Russia.
NATO Secretary-General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said the alliance had agreed after Russia's Georgia invasion that there could be no "business as usual" with Moscow, but added:
"Our aim has never changed: to bring a Europe whole, free and at peace, a Europe in which Russia should play her full part as a responsible major player."
Others were more explicit.
"I think the time has come to resume," said Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini, proposing a start with ambassadorial contacts and a full resumption of the stalled NATO-Russia Council by a NATO summit next April.
Norway's Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere said contacts were needed with Moscow at all levels. "I fail to see that we gain anything by limiting channels of communication," he said.
"Saying that the EU will relaunch relations with Russian and in the OSCE (Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe) we meet Russia, and bilaterally we meet with Russia, but only NATO should be outside that, seems to be a strange weakening of our hand," he told reporters.
Across town in Brussels, senior diplomats from Russia and the 27-nation European Union -- most of whose members are also in NATO -- restarted stalled negotiations on a broad-ranging partnership accord with Russia as already widely flagged.
The EU agreed last month that Russia had complied sufficiently with the terms of a Georgia cease-fire to permit this, while keeping the relationship under review.
RICE CAUTIOUS
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said before the meeting that she did not oppose "in principle" reviving contacts with Russia via the ambassador-level NATO-Russia Council.
But referring to Russian troops still in Georgian breakaway regions, she said NATO should be very cautious about any move on military-to-military cooperation.
Concern about Russia's reaction prompted Germany and France to block a U.S. push at an April NATO summit in Bucharest to give Ukraine and Georgia formal routes to join the alliance known as Membership Action Plans (MAPs).
That summit gave Georgia and Ukraine vague promises of eventual NATO entry and agreed to review their MAP requests by the year-end. But Georgia's August clash with Russia and Ukraine's political chaos have only added to European doubts.
Germany insisted on Tuesday there were no grounds at the moment for NATO to deepen ties with Ukraine and Georgia.
"I hope we will agree to stick with the agreement from Bucharest. I see no reason to go beyond that for now," German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier told reporters as he arrived for the two-day meeting in Brussels.
Rice has backed a possible compromise of seeking to advance Ukrainian and Georgian entry hopes through the bilateral forums NATO has already established with each country. But Berlin is wary, accusing the United States of trying to provide short-cuts to membership -- something Washington denies.
(Additional reporting by Paul Taylor and by Sue Pleming in London; Editing by Charles Dick)
