Brussels  - The European Commission is to send 3 million euros (4.7 million dollars) to Haiti to boost food and health care for the island nation's poor, officials in Brussels said Tuesday.

The aid, which is the third such package the EU has allocated to Haiti this year, is "designed to improve access to food, health care, safe water and proper hygiene," a statement from the commission - the EU's executive - said.

The aid is expected to benefit up to 1.5 million people, with a particular focus on women and children, the statement said.

Brussels  - The European Union on Monday called for public comments on what strategy it should take in international negotiations aimed at fighting climate change.

In a series of 14 questions published online, the EU's executive, the European Commission, asked interested organizations and individuals to give their view of the most important steps to be taken in the global fight against climate change.

Brussels  - The European Union is still awaiting Tehran's official response to an offer of new talks to resolve the dispute over Iran's nuclear activities, but an answer may be coming on Monday, EU diplomats said Saturday.

Two weeks after the Geneva talks involving top officials from Iran, the five permanent UN Security Council members and Germany, it was being pointed out that no specific deadline had been set for Tehran to respond.

Brussels - World food prices are set to fall back from the heights they reached earlier this year, but are unlikely to drop back to the levels recorded before the recent price surge any time soon, a European Union study said Friday.

"It is becoming increasingly clear that structural factors like the growth in global food demand can be reasonably expected to maintain prices at sustained levels over the medium-term, though substantially below the most recent price hikes," the report from the European Commission's agriculture department said.

Brussels - The European Union is to send over 170 officials to observe elections in Angola and Rwanda in September, the EU's executive announced in Brussels on Friday.

The bloc is to send 92 observers to Angola for parliamentary elections on September 5, and 79 observers to Rwanda for elections on September 15-18, the European Commission said.

"These elections are crucial for the strengthening of Angolan democracy ... We are confident that (the EU's) assessment will boost the confidence of the Angolan people in the process," EU External Relations Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said.

Brussels - The European Union and Israel have agreed in principle to further open up their food markets to one another's products, officials in Brussels announced Friday.

Around 95 per cent of the trade in processed agricultural products between the EU and Israel is already fully liberalized.

The new agreement raises quotas and lowers tariffs on a range of "sensitive" products such as citrus fruits, goose liver and soya oil, a statement from the European Commission said.