Manila  - The European Commission has earmarked 9.9 million dollars to civilians affected by violence in the strife-torn southern Philippines, an official said Monday.

Alistair MacDonald, head of delegation of the European Commission in the Philippines, said 5.68 million dollars would be used to help people affected by recent clashes between soldiers and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) rebels in the southern region of Mindanao.

Paris - The leaders of the four EU members belonging to the G8 group of leading industrial nations were set to meet later Saturday in Paris to discuss a common European response to the global finance crisis.

The mini-summit was called by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, as current EU president, and will be attended by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

Brussels - European women should be given longer and better-paid maternity leave and be allowed to ask for flexible working hours when they return to work, the European Union's executive body said Friday.

"Only 65.5 per cent of women with dependent children are in work, compared with 91.7 per cent of men. Our proposals to improve maternity leave will help women to combine work and family life," EU equal-opportunities commissioner Vladimir Spidla said.

Brussels - The European Commission said Thursday that it had given the green light to a planned multibillion-euro bail-out for Germany's ailing mortgage lender Hypo Real Estate.

Brussels - Russia is considering tasking a warship to work with a European Union fleet intended to combat piracy off the coast of Somalia, Russia's ambassador to the EU said Thursday.

"We are considering the possibility of coordinated efforts between Russia and the EU in combating the ever-increasing acts of naval piracy along the coast of Somalia," Ambassador Vladimir Chizhov told journalists in Brussels.

Paris - Despite the slump in the American and European automobile markets because of the finance crisis, the European head of the Japanese car maker Toyota said Thursday that he expected a gradual recovery next year.

"In the long term, the sales of compact cars will increase in Europe. But there will always be people who need large automobiles," Tadashi Arashima told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Toyota has encountered problems on the German market because certain of its models were nearing the end of their cycles.