Paris - Nicolas Sarkozy believes he is the only leader capable of steering Europe through the current economic crisis and wants to become president of the euro-zone countries once his term as EU head expires at the end of the year, the daily Le Monde reported on Wednesday.

According to the newspaper, several advisors to the French president have confirmed this strategy.

Sarkozy's ambition is based on his firm conviction that the crisis in Georgia and the financial crisis both demonstrated that Europe was in need of a strong leader.

Damascus - Damascus has called on Europe to be more politically engaged in the Middle East and to play a role that is parallel or complementary to the US role.

"The Europeans are able to play a more effective role in the Middle East and to make their political weight equal to their economic one," the official Syrian mouthpiece, Tishrin newspaper, wrote in its editorial on Wednesday.

Beijing - This week's largest ever gathering of Asian and European leaders was planned to focus on efforts to combat climate change and promote sustainable development, but those efforts now look likely to be overshadowed by the need to respond to the global financial turmoil.

Talks on the financial crisis are expected to be "very intense" between leaders of the 27 European and 16 Asian nations at the seventh biannual Asia-Europe Meeting (ASEM) in Beijing, Serge Abou, the EU ambassador to China, told reporters.

"The main thing is to come out with strong and united messages conveying confidence," Herve Ladsous, the French ambassador to China, said of the talks on global finance.

Brussels - The European Union's executive body on Tuesday gave its blessing to the German government's rescue of troubled mortgage bank IKB, the country's first major victim of the current financial crisis.

The European Commission "has approved, under (EU) treaty state-aid rules, a 9-billion-euro (12.1-billion-dollar) restructuring package for German bank IKB," a statement released in Brussels said.

The bail-out "will allow for the restructuring of the bank, while the significant scaling back of IKB's activities will limit the distortion of competition created by the state support," it said.

Sofia  - A Bulgarian court on Monday launched a trial against 9 people accused of embezzling millions from European Union aid funds.

The defendants were accused of stealing 14 million leva (9.6 million dollars) from funds made available to Bulgaria by the EU as part of the SAPARD (Special Accession Programme for Agriculture and Rural Development) programme.

The defendants allegedly imported used machinery for meat processing, but forged documents so the machines could be registered as new. The EU fund was drawn upon for the cost of new equipment, with the defendants allegedly pocketing the difference.