Vienna - A major Austrian-Italian tunnel project was thrown into doubt Friday, after an Austrian finance minister was quoted in local media saying his country would not commit funds until Italy and Germany pledged their financing.

The rail tunnel beneath the Brenner mountain pass on the Austrian-Italian border is planned to improve the connection on the important route between Italy and Germany through the Austrian Alps.

London - Demonstrators at an oil refinery in Britain voted Thursday to return to work after a week of wildcat strikes over the recruitment of foreign specialists employed by an Italian contractor.

Workers approved a deal reached Wednesday between unions and the energy company Total, which owns the Lindsey refinery in the eastern county of Lincolnshire.

Under the agreement, 102 new jobs will be provided for British workers in addition to posts awarded to Italian and Portuguese construction workers on a building project which will run until the end of May.

Rome  - David Beckham's attorneys are discussing with Los Angeles Galaxy the footballer's possible stay at AC Milan past the end of his loan contract on March 8, Milan vice president Adriano Galliani said on Wednesday.

Galliani told the Milan website that the California club are the legitimate owners of the 33-year-old English star but that Milan would be happy to take him over for good.

Brussels - Italy confirmed its position as Europe's most gourmet nation on Tuesday as two more Italian products were awarded a place on the European Union's list of protected delicacies.

Radishes from the north-eastern town of Verona and saffron from the island of Sardinia became the latest additions to the register of almost 800 eponymous goodies which can only be named after a specific place if they were actually made there, after the European Commission approved their applications.

Udine, Italy - A comatose woman at the centre of a bitter euthanasia debate in Italy arrived at the old-peoples home Tuesday where doctors plan to switch off her life-support system.

Pro-life activists heckled the ambulance carrying 38-year old Eluana Englaro as it left a clinic in the northern city of Lecco late Monday night, shouting: "Don't let her die!"

The case of Englaro, who has spent the last 17 years in a vegetative state after a car accident, has reignited debate in Catholic Italy over euthanasia and its legal technicalities.

Rome  - Adrian Mutu scored a brace Monday as Fiorentina won 3-1 away to Bologna in a Serie A game called off Sunday due to heavy snowfall.

Bologna's defence was in trouble on six minutes as both captain Claudio Terzi and goalkeeper Francesco Antonioli failed to intervene allowing the Romanian to connect with Riccardo Montolivo's long feed and volley home from few metres off.

Ten minutes later, Montolivo again split the defence and sent away the striker, who came face to face with Antonioli and beat him to notch his 101st goal with Italian sides.