Russian FM calls on U.S. to stop sanctions to mend ties: newspaper

Russia would like to renew its relationship with the United States provided that the latter stops backing economic sanctions against Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published by La Repubblica newspaper on Thursday.

"As long as (U.S. President Barack) Obama's deputy Joe Biden goes around Europe recommending continued sanctions against us without taking into account how Kiev is behaving under Western pressure, we will not be able to reach any understanding," Lavrov was quoted as saying by the Italian newspaper.

The United States and European Union (EU) have imposed sanctions following Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and its alleged support for independence-seeking militants in Eastern Ukraine.

"In many other occasions we have always been accused of all the evil in the world... A good relation cannot be built on these bases," Lavrov went on saying.

According to diplomatic sources in Brussels quoted by ANSA news agency late on Wednesday, Italy has requested a "political debate" on the extension of the EU sanctions against Russia, which are set to expire at the end of this month.

The renewal of the sanctions was on the agenda of a meeting of the 28 EU member states' ambassadors to the EU on Wednesday, but Italy did not approve it.

The issue may be deferred to Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers or the Dec. 17-18 summit of European leaders, the source said.

Lavrov was in Rome on Thursday to take part in a three-day conference on regional crises in the Mediterranean which will run until Saturday and will be attended by some 300 representatives from some 40 countries.

He also said in the interview that Russia will support a United Nations (UN) plan to return Libya to stability, which will be discussed in a conference on Libya also scheduled in the Italian capital on Sunday.

However, the plan is "risky," Lavrov stressed, and "the efforts to stabilize Libya need to be enhanced," which must be done "coherently and meticulously."

"The conference is very important but we do not expect it will resolve the whole problem," he said. Enditem