The European Union has reported a breakthrough with Moscow in a bitter dispute over the Russian enclave of Kaliningrad which has cast a shadow over EU enlargement.
EU leaders now hope to seal the deal at a EU-Russian summit on November 11th.
After the latest negotiations, Russia now recognised the need for a "simple visa regime" to enable residents of the Baltic enclave to transit across Lithuania, which is set to enter the EU in 2004, to the rest of their homeland, said Danish Foreign Minister Mr Per Stig Moeller.
EU foreign ministers meeting in Luxembourg had agreed a deal on Kaliningrad which their leaders would endorse at a summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, he told a news conference.
Russia has been pressing for visa-free travel across EU territory for residents of Kaliningrad and had threatened to boycott next month's summit in the Danish capital in the absence of a deal.
"Russia now recognises that a simple visa regime must be introduced for cars and buses," said the minister, representing the EU's Danish presidency.
"Furthermore, Russia now recognises that a decision concerning a visa-free train may only be made when Lithuania has joined the European Union," Moeller added.
A high-speed, non-stop train link across Lithuania has been mooted as one way of allowing Kaliningrad dwellers to travel to the rest of Russia without an EU visa.
But Lithuania has been deeply unhappy at the prospect of having a train line foisted on its territory by the rest of the EU.
AFP