Washington's policy remains the only obstacle blocking the resumption of poultry exports to top buyer Russia, the head of Russia's consumer protection watchdog Rospotrebnadzor said.

"Political motives are the obstacle," Gennady Onischenko told a news briefing. "They (motives) are clear to me. They are linked to litigation with the European Union."

Russia, U.S. poultry's biggest export market, banned supplies from Jan. 19, saying a chlorine wash used routinely in U.S. processing plants was in violation of its food safety standards.

Washington says its poultry is safe, but negotiations between the two countries have not brought it back to the Russian market so far.

The European Union has a similar ban on U.S. poultry and Washington is trying to solve this dispute within the World Trade Organisation. Russia is not a WTO member.

At the end of May, Onishchenko said he had agreed with U.S. ambassador John Beyrle on a scheme which would permit the United States "to avoid waiving their own political issues." He did not elaborate and did not say when exports could restart.

Onishchenko said Russia insisted on importing poultry without the chlorine wash, a condition which the United States reportedly agreed to follow.

Last week, U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack said that the U.S. Department of Agriculture planned to buy $14 million worth of chicken meat to avoid a glut on the domestic market.

The United States shipped 733,000 tons of poultry meat to Russia worth $752 million in 2009. The U.S. quota for 2010 was set at 600,000 tons, but Russia has allowed other suppliers to use a quarter of it. (Reuters)