Luxembourg/Brussels - The European Union was gearing up on Monday for a series of emergency meetings on the worldwide swine flu outbreak amidst fears of a global pandemic. EU Health Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou has asked for EU health ministers to hold crisis talks on the issue "as soon as possible," officials in her office said.

The commissioner herself is set to travel to Luxembourg on Monday to give an emergency briefing on the issue to EU foreign ministers, who are holding a scheduled meeting there, diplomats said.

Brussels - A row over border demarcation which has led European Union member Slovenia to block its neighbour Croatia's EU hopes is set to move up a level on Monday as EU foreign ministers debate the issue for the first time.

Diplomats in Brussels fear that the Slovenian block, which comes as the accession negotiations of Turkey and Macedonia are also stalled because of rows with individual EU members, is casting a shadow over the EU's entire enlargement policy.

Brussels  - The European Union is set to extend the bloc's arms embargo, trade restrictions and visa bans on Myanmar and its leaders until April 2010, diplomats in Brussels said Friday.

EU foreign ministers are set to discuss the situation in Myanmar at a meeting in Luxembourg on Monday. Diplomatic sources say that they are likely to prolong the bloc's sanctions for a year in protest at the Myanmar government's crackdown on pro-democracy forces.

Brussels - The European Union is to send a 90-strong election observation team to Lebanon ahead of polls on June 7, the EU's executive, the European Commission, announced Friday.

"I am confident that the forthcoming parliamentary elections will result in the formation of a stable government ... I hope that the presence of European observers can contribute to ensuring that the elections will take place in a transparent and credible manner," EU Foreign Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

Brussels - UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is "most concerned" by the recent upsurge of fighting in Sri Lanka, he told journalists in Brussels on Thursday.

"I am most concerned at the rapidly deteriorating security situation in Sri Lanka," Ban said on the sidelines of a conference dedicated to the piracy crisis in Somalia.

Brussels - The European Union's executive on Thursday praised the Palestinian Authority (PA) for its efforts to reform its finances and security sector in 2008 despite its battles with Israel and Hamas.

The release of the bloc's annual report on relations with the PA "is an opportunity to praise progress made by the PA Government," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said in a statement.