POLAND:In his first visit to Brussels since being elected prime minister last month, Mr Tusk urged EU member states to demand that Russia comply with democratic standards.
"We should not in Europe be tolerant to a situation where certain democratic standards are being broken," said Mr Tusk, signalling that his centre-right government would continue to take a firm line with Moscow.
He made his comments as a diplomatic row broke out between EU states over French president Nicolas Sarkozy's decision to congratulate Russian president Vladimir Putin over his United Russia party's victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections.
During a trip to Algeria on Monday Mr Sarkozy phoned Mr Putin to offer his congratulations, while most EU governments condemned the poll as "neither free nor fair". Germany, France's key EU ally, criticised the lack of election observers and declared that "Russia was not a democracy and Russia is not a democracy".
The European Commission has also refused to congratulate Mr Putin, who opponents accuse of rigging the ballot and making life for opposition politicians impossible.
"Everybody is aware that observers have denounced a number of irregularities and . . . it is in the interest of Russian democracy, in the interest of a credible and strong Russia, to completely clarify all these allegations of irregularities," said a commission spokesman, who indicated that member states were working on a common response.
Portugal, the current holder of the EU presidency, is seeking agreement among the 27 member states on a joint statement reacting to the elections but is having difficulty getting a consensus on a text. One EU diplomat said a draft was being circulated which followed closely the criticisms already issued by Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe.
The divisions highlight the difficulty of forging a common EU foreign policy on sensitive relations with a large neighbour and a principal oil and gas supplier.
In recent months, however, Germany, France and the UK have become more critical of Mr Putin's treatment of opponents and backtracking on democratic reforms. Warsaw, which blocked EU-Russia partnership talks last year over Moscow's ban on Polish meat, has for some time urged the EU to take a tough line with Russia.