WARSAW, November 24 (RIA Novosti) - The Polish prime minister said Friday that Russia must recognize his country as a legitimate member of the European Union.

Poland and Russia have become caught up in a trade dispute over Russia's ban on Polish meat imports. In protest against Russia's ban, Warsaw vetoed the start of Russia-EU negotiations, set to begin Friday, on a new cooperation deal.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski told a news conference in Warsaw dedicated to Poland's veto, "Russia must not regard Poland as if it were not a member of the EU."

Kaczynski said the issue of talks on a new Russia-EU agreement had been discussed by the European Commission prior to Friday's Russia-EU summit in Helsinki, and that Poland had not initially planned to veto the talks.

"On the one hand, we asked the European Union to intervene in our dispute [over meat exports] with Russia," the Polish premier said. "On the other hand, we said that the failure to intervene and the absence of a resolution of the problem could lead to this [veto] decision."

Kaczynski said accusations that the issue was not ready for discussion and that other EU partners were not familiar with Poland's arguments were false.

Poland's conditions for the launch of talks on replacing the current partnership and cooperation agreement, set to expire in 2007, also included Moscow's ratification of the Energy Charter, and a transit protocol to the Charter, which would force Russia to liberalize its oil and gas sector.