HELSINKI. Nov. 23 (Xinhua) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin said here on Thursday that Russia's ban on Polish meat imports would not expand to the entire European Union (EU).

    "Disputes with Poland do not spread to the entire European Union," he told a joint press conference with Finnish President Tarja Halonen after talks.

    He said Russia made no complaints about the quality of Polish agricultural products.

    "We are forced to ban all meat imports," Putin said, noting that the problem "is that the Polish authorities have been unable to properly administer meat products from other countries, which are supplied to the Russian consumer market despite being banned not only in Russia but in EU countries as well."

    The Polish authorities' slowness in action has affected Polish producers, he added.

    This problem was not unsolvable, Putin said, "to handle such problems, "We have to sit at the negotiating table and find acceptable solutions."

    "These are not political tricks, these are technical problems," Putin said.

    Russia has banned meat imports from Poland out of food safety worries and also expressed concern over meat coming in from Romania and Bulgaria, which are expected to join the EU next year.

    The move prompted Poland to veto the start of EU partnership negotiations with Russia at the Friday EU-Russia Summit here on a new partnership and cooperation agreement as the decade-old existing one is to expire next year.

    Putin will meet EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Finnish Prime Minister Matti Vanhanen and other EU leaders at the summit, which will focus on energy issues.

    The summit is overshadowed with calls by Russia, which said that it could ban all imports of the EU animal products in 2007, because outbreaks of swine fever in Romania and Bulgaria could affect EU food product standards.

    Energy issue is another nut that the EU and Russia will try to crack as Moscow has rejected EU calls to ratify the Energy Charter Treaty and open its energy market to EU companies, while Moscow has asked the EU to allow Russian companies to enter the EU energy market.