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Russia threatens West as Turkey seeks grain deal extension

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Improved U.S. planting weather weighs on Chicago corn futures

SINGAPORE, April 10 (Reuters) - Chicago wheat futures climbed more than 1% on Monday, rising for the first time in four sessions as Russia's threat to bypass a UN-brokered grain deal underpinned prices.

Corn prices eased, weighed down by improved weather outlook for U.S. spring plantings.

"Rising Black Sea tensions could underpin U.S. wheat futures...," said Terry Reilly, a senior analyst at Futures International.

"The Ukraine export deal is set to expire in May and Turkey is looking to extend it. Meanwhile Russia would like to broker a deal that includes fertilizer exports."

The most-active wheat contract on the Chicago Board of Trade (CBOT) gained 1.1% at 6.82-3/4 a bushel, as of 0432 GMT. Corn fell 0.2% to $6.42 a bushel while soybeans added 0.3% to $14.96-1/4 a bushel.

Russia on Friday threatened to bypass the UN-brokered grain deal unless obstacles to its agricultural exports were removed, while talks in Turkey agreed removing barriers was a necessary condition to extending the agreement beyond next month.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov attending talks in Ankara said he and Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu discussed "a failure" to implement the terms of the deal.

He said Russia could work outside it if Western countries maintain what he said were obstacles to agricultural exports that were getting tougher.

Forecasts for warmer, drier weather in the U.S. Farm Belt added to pressure on CBOT futures, as it will encourage corn and soybean plantings, traders said.

Grain traders are awaiting a monthly U.S. agricultural supply and demand report due on Tuesday.

U.S. soybean export sales totalled 155,300 tonnes for the week ended March 30, down 42% from the prior four-week average, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said. That was below analysts' expectations for 200,000 to 600,000 tonnes. There were net cancellations of 48,300 tonnes for 2023/2024.

For corn, weekly U.S. export sales of 1.2 million tonnes for 2022/2023 were within analysts' estimates, though some were hoping for a bigger number after the U.S. Department of Agriculture recently made a string of daily sales announcements to China.

Agribusiness consultancy Safras & Mercado on Thursday raised its estimate for Brazil's 2022/2023 soybean crop to 155.08 million tonnes from 152.43 million tonnes in a previous forecast.

Large speculators trimmed their net short position in CBOT corn futures in the week to April 4, regulatory data released on Friday showed.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's weekly commitments of traders report also showed that non-commercial traders, a category that includes hedge funds, increased their net short position in CBOT wheat and raised their net long position in soybeans. (Reporting by Naveen Thukral; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu and Nivedita Bhattacharjee)