Brussels - The European Union is increasing its aid to Pakistan to 50 million euros (63 million dollars) over the next three years, the bloc's external affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero- Waldner, said Monday.

The money is to be directed at boosting EU programmes in the field of education, trade and farming in Pakistan's north-west, a tribal area bordering Afghanistan.

"The border area is very important," Ferrero-Waldner said, noting that educational programmes were particularly important in a destitute part of the country that is also a breeding-ground for terrorists.

Brussels - The European Union's executive is to approve Monday French and Austrian schemes to recapitalize troubled banks after it updated its own rules on state aid, a top official said.

The European Commission has adopted a new set of guidelines on how EU member states should be allowed to rescue banks hit by the credit crunch, and following the move, "the commission will adopt the French recapitalization scheme today ... and will shortly approve the Austrian scheme," EU Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes said.

Brussels - European Union foreign ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday to discuss a request by the United Nations for the bloc to send peacekeeping troops to the Democratic Republic of Congo.

France, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, has ruled out the deployment of European forces. But pressure has grown on ministers to act following an appeal from UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon, who says Europe should help reinforce UN peacekeepers in the former Belgian colony until more UN troops can deploy.

Brussels , Dec. 8 : In a written declaration, the European Parliament has called on the Government of Pakistan to take immediate action to extradite to India leaders of the Khalistan and other terrorist groups who acknowledge their role in terrorist activities in India.

It has also called on Islamabad to stop all cross-border infiltration and take immediate measures to reform the teaching imparted in madrassas; adding that President Asif Ali Zardari needs to monitor this reform process personally.

New Delhi, Dec 6: European Union has urged Pakistan to extend its cooperation to India in the investigation on Mumbai attacks.

Talking to the media here last evening, Gerard Araud, Director General of Political Affairs in the French Foreign Ministry, said that global society supports India, which is a victim of terrorist activities.

"What I have expressed on behalf of European Union is our full support to the Indian authorities in this crisis. We expect and we have said that Pakistan cooperate fully with this investigation. We consider it very important," said Araud, who was here to take part in the India-EU Security Dialogue.

BRUSSELS, Dec. 5  -- The European Union has agreed to have 10 percent of its vehicle fuels sourced with renewable fuels by 2020 in spite of warnings from scientists.

Scientists have said that turning forests or grasslands into farmland to make up for acreage lost to biofuel production undermines the claim that biofuels is a clean source of energy, Deutsche Welle reported Friday.

But an agreement between the European Parliament, the European Commission and European Union member states, upholds the 10 percent target proposed in January, as the three parties agreed to count non-food source biofuels twice.