Cameron: EU must sever its links to Russia

David Cameron called for tougher action against Russia today after European leaders backed down from their threat of sanctions.

An emergency EU summit in Paris was set to condemn Moscow's invasion of Georgia but would not impose economic retaliation for fear of losing billions in trade.

Russia's president Dmitri Medvedev has declared that Russia will continue to protect "regions of privileged interest" and that he is ready to hit back against any sanctions.

Moscow's ambassador to London, Yuri Fedotov, warned that sanctions would "hurt" Europe more than Russia.

But Mr Cameron said it was time to think about suspending Russia from the G8 group of leading nations and halting the EU-Russia strategic partnership. Although Gordon Brown and Foreign Secretary David Miliband have urged a review of relations with Russia, countries such as Germany-are wary of escalating the dispute.

The EU gets about a quarter of its natural gas from Russia and last week Germany's foreign minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier rejected the idea of sanctions, saying " someone should first tell me what a sanction against Russia could be".

Russia's four-day war with Georgia began on 7 August when Georgia tried to regain control of its breakaway South Ossetia province by force and Russia counterattacked.

Georgian president, Mikhail Saakashvili, urged EU leaders not to "give up faced with [Russia's] dirty attempt at aggression".

While EU leaders are expected to warn Russia that there can be no business as usual after its actions, the Paris summit will fall short of calling for sanctions amid divisions between the EU's 27 member states.

Today's summit was called by France, which chairs the EU. France's foreign minister Bernard Kouchner said Paris did not support sanctions but the views of all EU members would have to be taken into account. "The situation is very difficult and ... we must be firm on our position in offering a line defending territorial integrity of Georgia," he said.

Mr Brown said yesterday that both the EU and Nato should review their ties with Russia. "When Russia has a grievance over an issue such as South Ossetia, it should act multilaterally by consent rather than unilaterally by force," he said.

"My message to Russia is simple: If you want to be welcome at the top table of organisations such as the G8, OECD and WTO, you must accept that with rights come responsibilities."