By Mark John and Marcin Grajewski VIANA DO CASTELO, Portugal, Sept 7 (Reuters) - The European Union must be tougher in its dealings with a newly assertive Russia during the final months of President Vladimir Putin's rule, EU foreign ministers said on Friday. Several EU states were dismayed at the bloc's failure to censure Moscow over a Russian missile that fell on Georgian soil last month, and there is growing disquiet that Europe is letting Russia use its energy dominance as a political weapon. The EU could play a decisive role in ensuring Russia wins cherished membership of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) before Putin leaves office early next year, but in return it should insist Moscow behave more responsibly, ministers said. However, Poland warned it could block Russian entry to the WTO unless Moscow lifted a near two-year-old ban on Polish meat and other agricultural products. "We want a constructive relationship with Russia but we want responsibility shown by Russia," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said after EU ministers discussed Russian ties at a meeting in the Portuguese coastal town of Viana do Castelo. "People wanted to be firm but not macho," he told reporters. The West is at loggerheads with Russia on issues such as its opposition to a U.N.-backed independence plan for the Serbian province of Kosovo. It has also rattled nerves by restarting patrols of long-range bombers and test-firing new missiles. "There was widespread concern about a deterioration in Russian behaviour," said one British official of the debate. The pro-Western government of Georgia was disappointed at the cautious statement issued by the EU after a one-tonne Russian missile fell in a Georgian farmer's field on Aug. 6. The EU called for restraint and cooperation from both sides. LESS IDEALISM "We failed to address this and tell Russia what our position was on this," Latvian Foreign Minister Artis Pabriks told Reuters in an interview. "This systematic slowness is because we cannot agree a common approach as we try to make the best deals on a national level. This makes the EU vulnerable," he said, noting the tendency was marked "especially among the old members" -- a reference to the EU's founding states in western Europe. Moscow has called Georgian accusations that the missile was dropped by a Russian jet "a stunt". It did not detonate and the incident is being investigated by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Paet said the EU should look to better use its political and economic power, notably in supporting Moscow's efforts to win WTO entry by the end of the year, as part of a firmly pragmatic relationship with Russia. "If you look at developments in Russia, then there is much less idealism among 27 EU countries." EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said it was paradoxical that while EU-Russian trade was growing at 20 percent a year, the EU had "increasing questions" about human rights and democracy in Russia. Sweden's Carl Bildt said the EU, which will hold its final summit with Putin late next month, could help him secure WTO membership, but Poland warned it could stand in the way until a knotty trade dispute with Moscow had been resolved. "For us, the embargo is a serious matter," Polish Foreign Minister Anna Fotyga told Reuters of a 21-month ban by Moscow on Polish meat products on hygiene grounds which Warsaw disputes. "It is difficult for us to talk about strategic partnership or on values linked to free trade without removing those obstacles to free trade," she added.
