BRUSSELS (Belgium) - SUPPORT was growing on Monday for the European Union to resume talks with Moscow on a major partnership agreement which were frozen in Sept in protest over Russia's invasion of Georgia.

Most EU nations backed reopening the talks as foreign ministers gathered to take a decision.

'We need and want to work with Russia,' said a joint statement from the British and Swedish governments.

'Negotiations on the agreement are a pragmatic way of pursuing our interests across a range of important issues, like energy, climate change and trade.'

Many EU nations see the resumption of the talks as a way to defuse tension with Russia which rose after the Georgian war.

Those tensions were highlighted last week when President Dmitry Medvedev threatened to deploy short-range missiles close to the Polish border in response to US plans for anti-missile installations in eastern Europe.

Germany, Finland and Luxembourg also backed calls for the talks to resume. France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, wants to relaunch the negotiations at a summit meeting with Mr Medvedev on Friday on the French Riviera.

However Poland and Lithuania have been resisting calls for an early resumption of the talks, claiming Russia has failed to respect an EU-brokered cease-fire calling on Russian and Georgian troops to return to positions held before the war in early Aug.

Their tough stance reflects deep mistrust over Russian intentions among former Soviet bloc nations in eastern Europe.

In their statement, Britain and Sweden agreed that Russia had not completely fulfilled the truce terms. They sought to assure doubters by insisting that resuming the talks would not mean a return to 'business as usual' with Moscow.

However, they said it was in the EU's interest to begin negotiations on the partnership agreement.

Although the EU does not technically need unanimous agreement among its 27 member states to resume the talks, the bloc's leaders want to avoid a split that would be caused by going forward despite the objections of Lithuania and Poland.

The proposed EU-Russia partnership deal would include closer cooperation in the fields such as crime fighting, immigration, food safety and trade. It also would include touchy issues such as human rights and democratic reforms.

The EU hopes it will also open Russia's vast and lucrative energy sector to European investors.

The deal would replace a decade-old agreement which has lost much of its relevance due to Russia's energy wealth and its increasingly assertive foreign policy. -- AP