Prague - The current Czech presidency of the European Union has called for a common approach to the financial and economic crisis from EU members, ahead of a special union summit in Brussels on Sunday.

Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said in a statement from Prague on Saturday that "We do not want any new dividing lines; we do not want a Europe divided along a North-South or an East-West line."

Several Eastern European economies appear to be faring even worse than recession-hit western European states, in the face of rapidly weakening exchange rates and large current account deficits.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Bill Demong turned from villain to hero with a Nordic combined gold and Justyna Kowalczyk became the queen of cross-country skiing with a second world title on her own at the Nordic skiing world championships on Saturday.

Demong beat Germany's Bjoern Kircheisen for the Nordic combined normal hill crown, two days after he failed to find his bib in the team event which led to his disqualification and ended the US medal hopes.

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Austria lived up to its top billing on Saturday to win a third straight team event ski-jumping world title.

Normal hill world champion Wolfgang Loitzl had the longest jumps of 131 metres and 136m in each round as he won together with Olympic champion Thomas Morgenstern, Martin Koch and World Cup leader Gregor Schlierenzauer with 1,034.3 points.

Norway came second with 1,000.8 points and Japan were surprise third-place finishers with 981.2 points.

Liberec, Czech Republic - Justyna Kowalczyk of Poland had the strongest finish in a 30-kilometres cross-country ski marathon on Saturday to claim her second gold medal at the world championships.

Kowalczyk skied away from her rivals on the final kilometre to add the 30km gold to the pursuit title and 10km bronze.

Kowalczyk clocked 1 hour 16 minutes 10.6 seconds to win from Russian Evgenia Medvedeva (8.8 seconds behind) and Valentina Shevchenko of Ukraine (9.3).

Liberec, Czech Republic  - Jason Lamy Chappuis dominated ski-jumping in difficult conditions on Saturday en route to a possible first Nordic combined world championship title for France.

Lamy Chappuis soared 131 metres to lead from a trio of Finns, World Cup leader Anssi Koivuranta, Lauri Asikainen and Janne Ryynaenen, who all had 127m.

Due to the style points Lamy Chappuis was due to start the 10-kilometres cross-country pursuit at 1415 GMT 26 seconds ahead of Koivuranta, with Asikainen on 28 seconds and Ryynaenen on
36 seconds.

Liberec, Czech Republic - World Cup leader Dario Cologna of Switzerland has withdrawn from Sunday's 50 kilometres cross-country race and leaves the Nordic skiing world championships empty-handed.

The ruling body FIS said in a statement on Saturday that Cologna felt tired and wanted to concentrate on the final World Cup events of the season which run until March 23.

Cologna won the Tour de Ski in January and leads the World Cup with 939 points from Norwegian two-time world champion Petter Northug, who has 736 points.