Brussels - The European Union was on Friday split over the question of whether or not to renew sanctions against Belarus, six months after it froze them, EU diplomats said.

The row comes as the bloc is pushing to increase its influence in the former Soviet Union to counter Moscow's growing assertiveness in the region.

The EU imposed visa bans and froze the assets of top Belarusian regime members in 2006. In October, shortly after August's war between Russia and Georgia, EU foreign ministers decided to suspend the sanctions for six months in a bid to woo Minsk towards a more pro-Western and pro-democracy course.

On Monday, the ministers are set to debate whether they should keep the sanctions suspended or bring them back into effect.

EU diplomats told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa that they had been unable to agree on the issue ahead of the meeting, with a handful of member states arguing that Belarus had not improved its human-rights record sufficiently to earn a longer suspension of sanctions.

But the political pressure is on for EU members to agree a softer stance towards Minsk, with some diplomats arguing that the bloc should push for closer ties with authoritarian President Alexander Lukashenko to stop him aligning his country too closely with Moscow.

In particular, officials say that they fear that Belarus could follow Russia and Nicaragua in recognizing the breakaway Georgian regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia if the EU does not offer an olive branch.

EU member states are united in condemning Russia's recognition, which followed the August war.

The EU is set to launch a new "Eastern Partnership" with its former-Soviet neighbours, not including Russia, on May 7. Ahead of the launch, the main question has been whether or not Lukashenko should be invited to its opening summit in Prague. (dpa)