BRUSSELS - Less than a year after the European Union (EU) expanded to include 25 countries, it has yet to work out a coherent policy towards giant neighbour Russia, with wide splits between old and new members, diplomats and analysts say.

Russian President Vladimir Putin is happy to take advantage of the divisions, courting his traditional partners within the bloc while riding roughshod over the sensitivities of the Baltic states, which were once part of the Soviet Union, and the biggest newcomer Poland.

Putin's strategy will be on show when he dines in Paris on March 18 with French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero - all seen as friendly towards the Kremlin leader.

Many former communist new members in eastern Europe, as well as Nordic EU states, want a much tougher line towards Moscow's record on democracy, human rights, the rule of law and relations with neighbours such as Ukraine or Georgia.

Michael Emerson, senior research fellow at the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, said splits were inevitable in an expanded EU of 25 members.

"(Putin) may think it diplomatically adroit to go to the dinner at the Elysee Palace and at the same time make pretty offensive comments towards the Baltics, but I don't think it's sustainable as a policy," the former EU envoy to Moscow said.

Putin's sympathizers are not confined to the so-called "old Europe", which opposed the US-led war in Iraq. British Prime Minister Tony Blair and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi also claim a special relationship with the Kremlin chief.

By courting big West European leaders over their heads, Putin risks further alienating new EU members, fearful of what they see as Russia's reluctance to give up imperial ambitions.

"The Chirac/Schroeder/Berlusconi camp is ... putting a blind eye to the telescope on Russian internal affairs," Emerson said.

"Appeasement"

Germany is a huge buyer of Russian natural gas, and Italian, French and British companies are big investors in Russia, leading to fears among some new members that the big boys are happy to ignore Putin's failings in order to protect economic interests.

Israeli minister Natan Sharansky, who as Anatoly Sharansky was a Soviet dissident imprisoned until 1986, said the European Union should be more strict with Russia.

"Of course the position that 'as long as we have our gas we should not care' - if that is the position - is extremely dangerous," he said in an interview.

"In the last two or three years we have a lot of alarming signs of restrictions introduced on democracy, whether in freedom of the press or in political competition. The free world has to make these questions part of their policy relations with Russia," he added.

Moscow's relations with the Baltic states and Poland are at a low ebb ahead of the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II, which they see as the beginning of a 45-year Soviet rule.

"Since enlargement you have these sensitivities round the table," an EU diplomat said. "It's clear you don't see relations in the same way if you're in Paris or Rome or London as you do if you're in the Baltics. It's a fact of life and geography."

Baltic boycott

The leaders of Estonia and Lithuania are boycotting a May 9 Moscow party to celebrate the Red Army's victory over Nazi Germany. Latvia and Poland will attend with misgivings.

The next day, Moscow hosts an EU-Russia summit at which the two sides hope to reach agreement on basing their relations on four "common spaces" of mutual interest.

But a dispute over the external security "space" means agreement may be hard to reach.

At stake is Russia's reluctance to see Brussels play a role in former Soviet states such as Ukraine, Moldova and Georgia that are EU neighbours since enlargement but which Moscow sees as part of its "near abroad".

An official of the EU's executive commission said the bloc has discussed "the necessity to speak to Russia with one voice".

But there is no sign of such a single voice at present and it may be hard to reach in the future as well if Putin's attempts to exploit internal EU splits continue, analysts say.

(Agencies via Xinhua)