Dutch presidency: The Dutch EU Presidency has repeated its call to Russia for more information on last week's school hostage siege, despite Moscow's outraged reaction when the request was first made last Friday writes Denis Staunton in Brussels.
"I mourn together with the Russian people, but I also think, and you can hear voices elsewhere on this, that we need to know what happened, and this is very normal in the context of co-operation in fighting terrorism," the Foreign Minister, Mr Bernard Bot, said.
Mr Bot said he had been unable to contact his Russian counterpart, Mr Sergei Lavrov, to explain the request for information and had written to him instead.
"Lavrov did not want to react. He had no time . . . So I explained the request in writing. As far as I am concerned this is the end of the story," Mr Bot said.
The Russian Foreign Ministry reacted with outrage to a statement from Mr Bot on behalf of the EU Presidency on Friday asking how the tragedy could have happened. The ministry summoned the Dutch ambassador in Moscow to explain.
"We behaved correctly, and the reaction from our Russian friends was very surprising, but we sympathise deeply with what happened," Mr Bot said, adding he had not sought to criticise and the media carried some of the blame for the misunderstanding.
"I said in the letter that I assume that should the same situation arise in the future, I think he \ should get in touch with me first before acting on incorrect information in the press," Mr Bot said, adding he had not yet received a reply.
The French Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, on Monday reiterated Mr Bot's comments: "We want to have all the necessary information and we remind Russia every time we meet of the need to respect human rights."
An emergency meeting of ambassadors from Nato and Russia met in Brussels yesterday to discuss anti-terrorist co-operation in the aftermath of the hostage drama. The two sides are expected to discuss concrete measures when they meet again on September 22nd.
"The member states of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation-Russia Council remain determined to strengthen and intensify their common efforts against this shared threat," said the council, created in 2002 to promote security co-operation between the Cold War foes.
"We stand in solidarity with the people of the Russian Federation," it said of the Beslan siege and attacks on airliners and a Moscow metro station, also blamed on Chechen rebels, that have left a total of 100 people dead.