By William Horsley
BBC European affairs correspondent |
 The Baltic pipeline alarms some of Russia's neighbours |
Poland's Defence Minister Radek Sikorski has accused Russia of using its energy reserves as a means of blackmailing its western neighbours. In a BBC interview, Mr Sikorski said Poland wanted a commercial relationship with Russian energy suppliers, without monopolies, price-fixing or blackmail.
His comments echo concerns raised by US Vice-President Dick Cheney at a recent eastern European regional meeting.
Next week, Russia and the EU will have talks at a Black Sea resort.
Poland has previously criticised Russia for cutting gas supplies to Ukraine in January in a price dispute, and for signing a deal with Germany to build an undersea gas pipeline bypassing Poland.
 |  We want... no monopolies or blackmails, price-fixing or the use of energy as a tool of politics, or geopolitics |
Mr Sikorski recently compared the deal to the pre-World War II Nazi-Soviet pact which carved up Poland.
The $5bn (�2.7bn) pipeline, agreed in September 2005, will connect Babayevo in Russia to Greifswald in Germany.
The 1,200km (744-mile) pipeline is now under construction and will deliver Russian gas to Germany - and eventually to other Western European nations - by 2010.
Poland has asked the EU to forge a more coherent common policy on energy in the face of new challenges.
But its proposal for a new Energy Security Treaty, to provide mutual energy security in the same way as the Nato alliance offers protection against military attack, has so far won little public support.
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