Belarus says it will not take part in Sunday's regional security summit hosted by Russia in protest of Moscow's ban on the import of Belarusian dairy products.

The boycott of the Collective Security Treaty Organization summit - a one-day meeting of seven former Soviet republics - is the latest sign of strained relations between the two neighbors.

A Belarusian Foreign Ministry spokesman, Andrei Popov linked the boycott to Russia's decision earlier this month to block the import of hundreds of Belarusian dairy products, ostensibly for health reasons.

In Moscow, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Belarusian boycott "creates no obstacle" for drafting and approving summit documents.  He told the Itar-Tass news agency the main purpose of the summit is to proceed with plans for a regional rapid reaction force that would be based in Russia.

Moscow has touted the proposed seven-nation force as a counterweight to NATO.

The Russian ban on imports of Belarusian milk and hundreds of other dairy products comes months after Belarus refused to recognize Georgia's pro-Russian breakaway territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent countries.  Moscow extended such recognition last year, after a brief war with Georgia.

Bilateral ties have been further strained by Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko's recent attempts to develop closer ties with the West.

Some information for this report was provided by AFP, AP and Reuters.