Brussels - The European Union's executive body on Monday set out the rules that EU member states should follow when rescuing banks or financial institutions on the day that the bloc's biggest members, Germany and France, published their own massive guarantee schemes.

"This guidance demonstrates how (EU) state-aid rules form an important part of the solution to current problems on financial markets," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said in a statement.

Brussels - The "strategic deal" which the European Union is currently refusing to negotiate with Russia is a sweeping legal agreement designed to regulate the relationship for years to come.

At present, the relationship between the two sides is governed by a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) negotiated with the government of Boris Yeltsin in 1997.

The PCA is a contract governing matters such as trade, investment, environmental protection, tourism, and cultural exchanges.

Luxembourg - The European Union should denounce attempts by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe to destroy a power-sharing deal with arch-rival Morgan Tsvangirai, British Foreign Minister David Miliband said Monday.

"It is very important that a European signal goes out that we will play no part in supporting a power grab by the Mugabe regime," Miliband said in Luxembourg.

Brussels - The European Union has had problems in its relationship with Belarus ever since the introduction of authoritarian power by President Alexander Lukashenko, who has been referred to as "Europe's last dictator", in 1996-97.

In 1997, the bloc's foreign ministers decided that the EU should cut all aid to the country which was not focused on humanitarian or democratic objectives, and decided that only the EU's central organs would be authorized to meet with Belarusian ministers.

Luxembourg - European Union foreign ministers were Monday due to discuss re-starting cooperation talks with Russia amid disagreement over whether Moscow had fully complied with a peace deal in Georgia.

Ministers arriving at their meeting in Luxembourg indicated that reaching consensus on the strategic Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) talks would be difficult.

"We have to take it fairly slowly," said Finnish Foreign Minister Alexander Stubb. "I do not expect a decision (on the PCA) to be taken today."

Stubb chairs the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), which has a military monitoring operation in Georgia.

London - Ahead of Sunday's vital EU summit in Paris to deal with the global financial crisis, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has called for the adoption of bank rescue plans across Europe similar to the 500-billion-pound scheme unveiled in London last week.

In an article in the Sunday Mirror newspaper, Brown wrote "today I am going to Paris to persuade other European countries to adopt the comprehensive approach we have taken in Britain. For Europe, the stakes could not be higher and this is a moment of truth."