BRUSSELS, March 20 (AFP) - The European Union on Monday reiterated deepening concern over Chechnya, deploring Moscow's failure to respond to EU calls for humanitarian monitoring and improvement, but made no move to beef up toothless sanctions enacted months ago.

EU foreign ministers, in their monthly General Affairs Council, renewed their call to the Russian government for "immediate steps towards a peaceful solution of the conflict" in the breakaway republic.

They called for "an end to the use of indiscriminate force, as well as the opening of a political dialogue between the Russian government and representatives of Chechnya."

Tougher sanctions against Serbia and more aid to its neighbors were high on the GAC agenda. Last month the foreign ministers agreed in principle, at the behest of the Serbian democratic opposition, to a six-month suspension of the flight embargo on Serbia.

They also agreed to lengthen the list of some 600 people in the Belgrade regime of President Slobodan Milosevic who are currently denied visas to EU countries.

And they asked the European Commission to come up with a plan for tougher financial sanctions against Belgrade.

Those sanctions at the moment include a freeze on investment, export credits and holdings of EU companies with links to the Belgrade regime.

The new measures being looked at Monday essentially would expand the existing sanctions and call on Serbian companies wanting to deal with the EU to prove they have no links with the Belgrade government.

The ministers also reiterated solidarity with flood-ravaged Mozambique, noting that member states and the EU as a whole had already pledged more than 300 million euros (dollars) in aid and debt relief, with more in the pipeline this year.

"The member states will continue to participate actively in the coordination and rehabilitation being led by the Mozambique government and look forward to making a positive contribution to the donor conference to be held in Rome at the end of April," said a statement.

The foreign ministers were also to hold a joint meeting with EU defense ministers on European common defense and security policy and the setting up of a civilian crisis management unit, holdover mandates from the Helsinki EU summit last December.

The EU's Portuguese presidency announced at the meeting that East Timorese leader Xanana Gusmao had been invited to high-level talks with the EU on Thursday in Lisbon.

Gusmao, president of the National Council of East Timorese Resistance, will attend a working breakfast with members of the EU's foreign policy troika, a spokesman for the presidency said.

The get-together will be on the sidelines of a March 23-24 EU summit in the Portuguese capital dealing with jobs, social policy and the new economy in Europe.

The spokesman said the breakfast was intended to signal the importance that the European Union attaches to the quick stabilization of the situation in East Timor.

It is also meant to express support and recognition for the role that Gusmao is playing in his country, he added.

At lunch, the ministers were to hear a plea from Britain, Denmark and the Netherlands for tougher sanctions on Myanmar aimed at easing human rights abuses.

"The situation in Burma (Myanmar) is deteriorating," said a source close to the talks here. "There are people in prison without trial. The HIV-AIDS situation is very bad because the country is closed to NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and health care."

The British government is said to be in close touch with British-educated Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose National League for Democracy won a huge victory in 1990 national elections.

But the ruling military junta has refused to relinquish power, and Aung San Suu Kyi has been under virtual house arrest since.

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