Riga- The foreign ministers of Latvia and Lithuania met in the Latvian capital, Riga, on Friday in a bid to resolve long- standing uncertainties concerning their mutual sea border, and plan how to link the Baltic states' energy systems to the larger European grid.

Newly-installed Lithuanian Foreign Minister Vygaudas Usackas admitted that he was already acquainted with his Latvian counterpart, Maris Riekstins.

"We flew back from the meeting of EU foreign ministers in Prague on the same plane yesterday, so I told Maris we are in on the same plane and in the same boat as one team," Usackas joked with journalists after the meeting.

Usackas described the Baltic interconnection plan designed to end the Baltic states' status as an "energy island" within the European Union by building links to other EU member states as "very important" and said both ministers had a firm commitment to building a single Baltic energy market.

Both Latvia and Lithuania are known to want an energy link to Sweden.

"Lithuania and Sweden have prepared a study which has a suggestion in terms of the link from Sweden to Lithuania which shows it has technical, financial and other capacities to link the Baltic and Nordic countries," Usackas said, though he stressed that the fact links are constructed is of primary importance.

"A high-level working group is in place and the time to act is now," Usackas said, adding that additional pipelines should also be built to Central Asia, the Caucasus and Middle East.

A high-level meeting of ministers and energy businesses from the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania will be held in late February or early March to tackle energy issues. The meeting would discuss, among other matters, the construction of the energy connections and progress towards the construction of a new nuclear power plant in Lithuania involving the three Baltic states plus Poland, Usackas confirmed.

The two ministers also broached the subject of their sea border.

Lithuania has already ratified an agreement establishing the border, but the Latvian parliament has held a final agreement in legislative limbo for years over concerns that oil and mineral deposits may be located in the area of the sea border.

Now Riekstins and Usackas are relaunching efforts to establish an agreement that would see joint exploitation of any resources found in the border zone.

"We would like to have expert discussions related to the principles of cooperation in the Baltic Sea in case such natural deposits were to be found there," Riekstins said, hinting that such a move might help the Latvian parliament pass the necessary ratification.

However, he could not say how long such discussions might take.

"Regarding the timeframe, it's difficult for me to prejudge any dates but I personally would like to see this happen as soon as possible because we have lost almost a decade by not having an agreement in place," Riekstins told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"We are open to that proposal with a view to moving forward," Usackas said.

The two foreign ministers also called for the immediate resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe via Ukraine. (dpa)