	ec and comecon ends talks with progress the european community ec and soviet led comecon ended talks here having made progress on setting up formal  relations but no breakthrough because of comecon s refusal to recognise west berlin as part of the ec delegates said negotiators were trying to reach agreement on the draft of a joint declaration setting up official relations after years of mutual non recognition john maslen head of the ec delegation told reuters as he emerged from the final session we made some progress but we have called for another meeting officials who asked not to be named said the comecon team had refused to accept a clause in the draft declaration which would recognise west berlin as part of the nation ec under the treaty of rome all contracts and agreements signed by the community must contain this territorial clause stipulating west berlin is an integral part of the ec an ec negotiator taking part in the three day talks said we wanted the territorial clause in but comecon said no a joint statement issued after the talks said progress was made towards clarifying positions but another meeting would be necessary to complete the work any decision in principle to set up relations would require approval by the community s council of ministers and by the executive committee of comecon zdzislaw kuroski deputy director of comecon who heads the east bloc delegation told reuters ahead of today s session we have narrowed our differences on a range of questions but not on all questions asked whether comecon would accept ec insistence that any joint declaration stipulate west berlin as part of the community he replied this question is not contained in the draft which our side presented west german diplomats said they would insist on including the clause on west berlin in any ec comecon agreement the talks followed an earlier round between the two trading blocs here last september and the first ever direct talks between the ec and the soviet union on establishing diplomatic relations in january the ec s with individual comecon member states despite non recognition of comecon last year the ec had a five billion dlr  deficit with east european states about half the deficit of the previous year due to a drop in the price of soviet oil imported by the ec reuter 
