"A strong energy partnership is in both our interests. This requires security and predictability on both sides," Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's commissioner for external relations, said Thursday ahead of the summit.

Putin was hosting Ferrero-Waldner, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and Austrian Chancellor Wolfgang Schussel, current holder of the EU presidency, in Sochi on the palm-fringed Black Sea coast of southwestern Russia.

At the start of the one-day summit, Putin said Russia was taking measures to "strengthen the energy security of the European continent" with the aim of "improving the quality of life of Europeans."

But Russia, which has the biggest gas reserves in the world and accounts for 26 percent of EU gas supplies, and Europe are still divided over access to each other's energy markets and accuse each other of politicising the issue.

Even as differences remain over energy, Brussels and Moscow stressed common ground on stopping a determined Iran from pushing ahead with uranium enrichment -- seen in the West as part of a secret plan to build a nuclear bomb.

"We will think how we can find a way out of this complex situation together," Sergei Yastrzhembsky, Putin's envoy to the European Union, told reporters ahead of talks.

Ferrero-Waldner recognised Russia was "a very constructive player" in the diplomatic stand-off over Iran and stressed "synergy" between Russia and the European Union.

"At the same time, we also have to have credible alternatives that are still being discussed in the Security Council," in case Iran rejects offers aimed at coaxing it into stopping sensitive nuclear work, Ferrero-Waldner said.

The European Union and Russia were also set to sign accords Thursday that would make short-stay visas for travel between most of the European Union and Russia easier to obtain, as well as simplifying rules on multiple-entry documents.

As part of the deal, Russia would also undertake to readmit illegal immigrants -- both Russian and third-country nationals -- who enter the European Union from Russian territory.

"They will make visas simpler, easier to obtain and also step up the fight against illegal immigration," Ferrero-Waldner said.

Analysts say the meeting is a chance for Putin to smoothen rough diplomatic waters ahead of the G8 summit he hosts in July, amid US criticism about the state of democracy in Russia and widespread Western fears about Moscow's reliability as an energy supplier.

"For President Putin it will be a sort of dress rehearsal for the Group of Eight," Kommersant daily wrote Thursday. "The Russian president will talk with EU leaders about energy security and try to stay away from the democracy subject."

The energy issue has soured East-West relations much of this year, ever since Russian gas giant Gazprom briefly switched off the taps to Ukraine during a price dispute in January, hitting supplies further west in Europe.

The European Union now wants energy issues to be included in a new EU-Russia partnership agreement from next year to replace a deal signed in 1996.

Initial talks on a new document are set to start at the summit.

"The time has come to agree on the foundation stones for a new agreement to reflect the full range of cooperation," Barroso said in a written statement this week.

Russian and EU officials meeting in Sochi also agreed in principle on a 20-million euro aid program for the troubled North Caucasus region that includes Chechnya, Ferrero-Waldner said.

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