* EU searches for new strategy towards Russia
* Fears further tensions over former Soviet republics' allegiance
* Future energy policy, trade links at stake
By Justyna Pawlak
ATHENS, April 5 (Reuters) - European Union foreign ministers tried to map out a new strategy towards Russia at talks in Athens on Saturday, pledging to keep a tough stance over its tensions with Ukraine, while steering clear of provoking Moscow into further conflict.
Since Russia's annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea, the European Union has imposed sanctions against the closest allies of President Vladimir Putin, and Group of Seven governments have suspended top-level contacts with Russia.
Further sanctions are being prepared in case the conflict escalates. But in the near term, the EU's 28 governments will have to balance the need to preserve stability to east of the bloc, while strengthening ties with former Soviet republics, a process that has drawn ire from Moscow.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said it was not in the European Union's interest to fuel confrontation with Russia, already at its highest since the Cold War.
"Unfortunately, Russia is forcing us to revise our approach, because of its actions," Sikorski told Reuters after the two-day meeting in the Greek capital, focused on EU's relations with Russia and neighbours to the east and south.
"We used to negotiate through peaceful means ... But Russia has moved beyond this framework, by its aggression towards Ukraine."
Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt said further tensions with Russia were inevitable, as the EU prepares to sign trade deals with Georgia and Moldova by June, and to finalise closer economic ties with Ukraine.
Ukraine's plans to sign such a deal last year led Russia to persuade former Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovich to abandon them, causing popular protests in Kiev and the ousting of the pro-Russian president in February. Russia later seized Crimea.
Bildt said he was "quite certain" Putin would try to force Georgia and Moldova to drop plans for closer trade ties with Europe, just as he prevented Armenia last year from moving forward with a trade pact.
"There is no question whatsoever, and he will do the same with Ukraine. The plan is I think to sign these (pacts) in June. I don't that there is going to be applause in the Kremlin. There might be something else ... thunder," he told reporters.
The EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton said diplomatic efforts to soothe tensions between Ukraine and Russia would continue.
"You will see over these coming days that we continue to engage with Russia, with the Ukrainian colleagues and the United States in making sure that we have a strong way forward," she told a news conference.