Looking for His glorious appearing! Titus 2:13

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - For all the tough talk, Europe is not likely to punish Russia over last week's downing of an airliner over Ukraine beyond speeding up the imposition of already agreed individual sanctions when the bloc's foreign ministers meet on Tuesday.

The severity of future European Union sanctions could depend on the Netherlands, which suffered the greatest loss of life when the Malaysia Airlines flight was brought down.

U.S. President Barack Obama has piled pressure on Europe for a more forceful response and the three leading EU powers - Britain, France and Germany - said they should be ready to ratchet up sanctions.

Britain, in particular, said it was willing to suffer the economic consequences.

But diplomats said Tuesday's meeting was not expected to go further than agreeing on companies and people to be hit with asset freezes under a more aggressive framework agreed last week. Previously, they had only said they would decide on the list by the end of July.

Several diplomats said moving towards more sweeping economic sanctions could only be decided by heads of government. The attitude of the Netherlands, which lost 193 people in the incident, would be critical, diplomats said.

The next scheduled summit of EU leaders is on Aug. 30, although EU members could call for another emergency meeting.

"The impulse must come from The Hague because they have the moral mandate to demand a resolute, firm reaction. Everything depends on that," one EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity.