Russia 'allows veg in from Spain, Denmark'

Russia has resumed vegetable imports from Spain and Denmark after imposing an embargo on the 27-nation EU bloc due to Germany's killer E. coli outbreak, the head of Russia's consumer protection agency said Friday. Russia has "allowed vegetable produce deliveries from Denmark and Spain" after having considered "all the circumstances and the prevalence of the disease there," the agency's Gennady Onishchenko was quoted as saying by the Interfax news agency. Earlier this week Russia resumed imports from the first two European Union countries, the Netherlands and Belgium. Russia infuriated the European Union in early June when it banned vegetable imports that account for about a quarter of the bloc's annual sales abroad. European officials said the decision contradicted Russia's intention of joining the World Trade Organisation by the end of the year after nearly two decades of talks. The World Health Organisation said 4,050 infections have been confirmed in 14 European countries, the United States and Canada -- more than 3,900 of them in Germany. The outbreak has been blamed on organic vegetable sprouts.