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EU to let Belarus leader travel EU to let Belarus leader travel
(about 9 hours later)
The European Union has decided to lift its travel ban on President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, in an attempt to encourage democratic reform.The European Union has decided to lift its travel ban on President Alexander Lukashenko of Belarus, in an attempt to encourage democratic reform.
The ban on Mr Lukashenko and other officials would be lifted for six months, a diplomat told Reuters. Mr Lukashenko and other officials will be able for six months to visit the EU.
Belarus has been labelled "Europe's last dictatorship" by the US - but the West has been encouraged by the release of political prisoners. EU foreign ministers also ended travel sanctions, though not an arms embargo, against energy-rich Uzbekistan.
"We want to show that progress is being rewarded," said an EU commissioner. But after hours of discussion, they stopped short of resuming partnership talks with Russia, which were suspended over the conflict in Georgia.
External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the EU should not "forego a possibility to have political leverage". The EU last week welcomed Russia's pull-out from buffer zones next to Georgia's breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.
She was speaking after meeting Belarussian Foreign Minister Sergei Martynov. But French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said "problems remain" over whether Russia is fully in compliance with a ceasefire deal.
Mr Martynov was due to meet EU foreign ministers later in the day - the highest such contact between the two sides in four years. He said it would be wise to wait for the start of a peace conference in Geneva this week and for more evidence of withdrawal on the ground, before committing to a resumption of talks with Russia.
Only a few Belarussian officials, believed to have been involved in the disappearance of political opponents, remain affected by the travel ban, the EU presidency said.
However, freezes on the assets of Belarussian officials in Europe would remain in place, diplomats said.
Russian rivalryRussian rivalry
Belarus has been labelled "Europe's last dictatorship" by the US - but the West has been encouraged by the release of political prisoners.
"We want to show that progress is being rewarded," said the EU's External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner.
The EU should not "forego a possibility to have political leverage", she added.
Only a few Belarusian officials, believed to have been involved in the disappearance of political opponents, remain affected by the travel ban, the EU presidency said.
However, freezes on the assets of Belarusian officials in Europe will remain in place.
Not all European countries were convinced sanctions on Belarus should be eased.Not all European countries were convinced sanctions on Belarus should be eased.
Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that last month's parliamentary election, in which all the seats were won by politicians loyal to the president, was as "lousy" as usual in Belarus.Sweden's Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said that last month's parliamentary election, in which all the seats were won by politicians loyal to the president, was as "lousy" as usual in Belarus.
But the EU feels it has little option but to strengthen ties with its eastern neighbours - over which Russia is trying to reassert its influence - even when they do not entirely live up to democratic expectations, says the BBC's European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu. But the BBC's European affairs correspondent Oana Lungescu says the EU feels it has little option but to strengthen ties with its eastern neighbours - over which Russia is trying to reassert its influence - even when some of them do not entirely live up to democratic expectations.
The EU also scrapped travel sanctions imposed on Uzbek leaders after a bloody crackdown on protesters in 2005.
The foreign ministers noted the recent release of human rights activist Mutabar Tojibaeva, but said they remained seriously concerned by the human rights situation in Uzbekistan.
And they promised an ambitious new agreement boosting ties with the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova, strategically placed between the EU and Ukraine.