The European Union and Russia backed plans yesterday for a pan-European security summit next year to ease tensions raised by the Georgia crisis and a dispute over missile systems in eastern Europe.

Nicolas Sarkozy, France's president, and Dmitry Medvedev, his Russian counterpart, said the summit could take place next June or July, bringing together the US, Russia and the EU's 27 member states under the auspices of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).