Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves, Image: EPA/Szilard Koszticsak

President Tarja Halonen has expressed her regret over the dispute between Estonian and Russian officials that flared up on Sunday at a summit of Finno-Ugric nations in Western Siberia.

Estonian President Toomas Hendrik Ilves walked out of the event after a senior Russian MP criticised Estonia for its treatment of ethnic Russians.

Halonen said that the comments came in response to Ilves's speech the day before, in which he described the opening up of Estonia since it joined the EU.

Konstantin Kosachyov, the chair of the Russian parliament's foreign affairs committee, criticised Estonia for a "careless" policy towards its Russian minority, which makes up around a quarter of its population of 1.3 million. He cited last year's dispute over the relocation of a monument to Soviet troops in Tallinn.

The congress was held in the Siberian city of Khanty-Mansiysk, where Ilves and Halonen met with their Russian counterpart Dmitry Medvedev on Saturday in a cordial atmosphere.

It was the first one-on-one meeting between an Estonian and a Russian president in 17 years and Halonen's first meeting with Medvedev. She raised the bilateral dispute over timber tariffs, but failed to win any concessions other than a promise of more talks.