Brussels - The European Union will not approve sanctions against Russia but will instead discuss sending economic aid and a civilian mission to Georgia, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said ahead of an emergency meeting of the bloc's leaders Monday.

"I think sanctions are not on the agenda today," Solana said after holding talks in Brussels with visiting Georgian Prime Minister Vladimir Gurgenidze.

The EU is split on the issue of sanctions, with Poland and the Baltic states on one side insisting that the EU should punish Russia, and France, Germany and Italy saying instead that dialogue with Moscow is the best way forward.

Brussels  - Residents of the Belgian town of Fleurus have been told not to consume locally-produced vegetables and dairy products following a leak of radioactive iodine at a nearby nuclear facility, Belgian media reported Friday.

The interior ministry has also issued a warning against the consumption of local dairy products.

The warnings follow the discovery of unusually high levels of radiation in grass samples taken near the Institut National de Radio-elements, which makes radioisotopes used to treat cancer.

Brussels  - European Union consumers will as from Saturday find it cheaper to make or receive calls on their mobile phone while travelling to another EU country.

According to the EU's Roaming Regulation, the current price cap of 0.49 euros (0.72 dollars) per minute (excluding VAT) for making a call while abroad will fall to 0.46 euros on August 30.

The maximum price that European mobile phone operators will be able to charge their customers for receiving a call while roaming will likewise fall, from 0.24 euros to 0.22 euros per minute.

Brussels - The deployment of four NATO warships in the Black Sea was planned more than a year ago and has nothing to do with the latest developments in nearby Georgia, the alliance said Thursday.

The statement from Brussels follows expressions of concern by Russian officials at what they call a "buildup" of NATO ships in the area.

"This deployment is routine in nature and has been planned for over a year, notification of the requirement to transit the Turkish Straits was given in June, well before the current Georgia crisis and is completely unrelated," NATO said.

Brussels - A French mountaineer who met a group of Belgian climbers in the Pyrenees recently chose an unusual way of getting them to smile for a team photo.

"What do Belgians write at the bottom of their swimming pools? 'No smoking'," he quipped, and clicked the shutter as they laughed.

Whatever European Union supporters may say about the way the bloc has created a zone of peace and harmony across the continent, its citizens still like nothing better than making jokes about each other.

Thus Belgians form the butt of a huge stock of jokes both in France and in the Netherlands, where they are seen, according to need, as stupid, naive or obsessed with food and drink.

Brussels  - NATO on Wednesday reassured Ukraine about its prospects of joining the transatlantic alliance, with both sides condemning Russia's decision to recognize Georgia's breakaway regions.

At a meeting in Brussels between ambassadors from NATO and Ukraine - the first such meeting since the outbreak of the conflict in Georgia - the sides expressed "deep concern over the current situation in Georgia, and its implications on the security in the Caucasus and the Euro-Atlantic area".