Brussels- The European Union on Friday said that it was "deeply concerned" by the execution in Japan of three death-row inmates and asked Tokyo to bring in a moratorium on further hangings.

"The European Union is deeply concerned at the Japanese authorities' announcement that three people under sentence of death - Mr Yoshiyuki Mantani, aged 68, Mr Mineteru Yamamoto, aged 68, Mr Isamu Hirano, aged 61 - have been hanged," a statement on behalf of the EU from the French government said.

Brussels - The finance ministers of the 15 countries which share the euro gathered in Nice on Friday to find ways of avoiding a recession and to prevent a repeat of the ongoing turmoil seen on the financial markets.

Ministers were set to discuss the latest economic forecasts of the European Commission, which on Wednesday cut its 2008 growth forecast for the eurozone to just 1.3 per cent.

Within the group, Germany and Spain are expected to experience a technical recession - which is defined as two consecutive quarters of economic contraction - while France and Italy will see their economies stagnate during the second half of the year.

Brussels  - European Union officials in Brussels on Wednesday said Google's decision to halve the amount of time it stores internet users' personal data is "a good step in the right direction."

The search engine giant announced this week that it would be storing unique PC addresses, known as Internet Protocol (IP) numbers, for nine months rather than 18.

The move comes on the back of growing pressure from the EU, which is seeking to protect its citizen's privacy and would like internet search engines to retain users' personal data for a maximum of six months.

Brussels - The European Union is set to call for crisis talks with leaders of August's coup in Mauritania as a last chance to avert sanctions, diplomats in Brussels said on Thursday.

At a meeting on Monday, EU foreign ministers are set to invoke Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and African, Pacific and Caribbean (APC) states, calling for emergency talks on the coup, EU sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"That means we try to find a solution. If there's no solution, we cut off development aid," a Brussels diplomat said.

Brussels - The European Union's finance ministers are to hold informal talks in the sunny French Riviera on Friday and Saturday.

But given the dark clouds hovering over their economies, they are set for a stormy gathering in Nice.

In one corner of the meeting room will sit the "goodies": those ministers who have either managed to contain the impact of the latest global economic slowdown, or whose governments were thrifty enough during the good times to be able to spend their way out of the present crisis.

Brussels- NATO has completed its naval exercises and will pull a force of four warships out of the Black Sea, the alliance confirmed Wednesday as it rejected Russian claims that it was forcing a confrontation in the wake of August's Russian-Georgian war.

"The Standing NATO Maritime Group One (SNMG 1) successfully completed its planned visit and is leaving the Black Sea today in accordance with the Montreux Convention," a statement released in the alliance's Brussels headquarters said.