Brussels - Officials in Brussels on Wednesday called on European Union countries to step up their fight against human traffickers and paedophiles through better prevention, harsher penalties for offenders and improved assistance to their victims.

In a statement, the European Commission said it would be proposing a series of new and updated rules to all 27 member states in the coming weeks.

Brussels, Mar. 25 : A dwindling of Old Europe''s population and a growth in the Muslim population across the continent has become a cause for concern among politicians.

Filip Dewinter, a leader of the far-right separatist party Vlaams Belang, predicts there will eventually be a kind of civil war when long time residents of Brussels - the nation''s capital and administrative seat of the European Union - realize their city is about to be taken over by Muslim immigrants.

Brussels  - Kim Clijsters looks set to do an about-face Thursday on the tennis career she gave up for marriage and a child, with the Belgian set to make an announcement later this week.

The 25-year-old is reportedly ready to "unveil her plans for 2009" a the club where the mother of one has recently resumed hard training.

Belgian media report that the former number 1 and 2005 US Open winner could return as early as the US Open in late summer. The Clijsters camp is keeping quiet prior to the announcement.

Brussels - Acknowledging the extraordinarily adverse impact of the economic downturn on European Union governments' public accounts, the bloc's executive in Brussels on Tuesday granted France, Britain and three other member states more time to correct their swelling budget deficits.

France, whose budget deficit to gross domestic product (GDP) ratio reached 3.4 per cent in 2008 and is set to hit 5.6 per cent this year, was given until 2012 to bring its deficit below the 3 per cent limit set by EU rules.

Brussels - The European Union's executive was set on Tuesday to give France until 2012 to bring its government deficit back in line with EU rules, diplomats in Brussels said Monday.

At a meeting in the French city of Strasbourg, the European Commission is to debate what to do to with euro users France, Greece, Ireland and Spain, after their government debts broke the EU's limit of 3 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2008.

Brussels - European Union and Ukrainian leaders on Monday pledged to work together on reforming Ukraine's gas transit system as Russia accused the two sides of working behind its back.

"It's our firm intention to modernize our gas transit system, to ensure it complies with all European standards. We want the consumer to know where the supplies are at all times and how (they) are being spread," Ukraine's President Viktor Yushchenko told a conference on the modernization of his country's gas transit system in Brussels.