Paris - A top advisor to French President Nicolas Sarkozy said Thursday that the financial crisis has "temporarily" rendered the Maastricht criteria on public deficits not a top priority.

"Temporarily, (the criteria) are not the priorities of priorities. The priority is to save the world banking system and therefore save citizens' savings," Henry Guaino told Canal Plus television.

GameStop Corporation, world's largest video game retailer, has agreed to buy French video game retailer Micromania for $700 million in cash, to expand its presence in the European market.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of the European Union, and Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen held talks on Wednesday in Paris on the future of the Lisbon Treaty, Sarkozy's office said.

According to a statement issued by the Elysee Palace, Cowen told Sarkozy that, at the October 15 EU summit, he would present the results of a study on the reasons for the rejection of the treaty in the June 12 referendum, which resulted in an institutional crisis for the EU and a freeze on taking in new members.

All 27 EU members must ratify the treaty for it to become law.

Deauville, France  - The European Union will soon deploy a warship fleet tasked with defending commercial vessels from attacks by pirates off the Somali coast, officials said Wednesday.

The move follows reports that pirates took control of a Kenya-bound cargo ship carrying 33 Russian-built T-72 tanks, armoured personnel carriers and munitions and held
20-member crew hostage.

Last week's seizure was only the latest in a growing list of attacks by pirates operating in the Gulf of Aden.

Deauville, France  - European Union defence ministers meeting in France on Wednesday were to consider ending the bloc's military operations in Bosnia-Herzegovina, officials said.

"Citizens should know that we can create a mission and terminate it as well," said the meeting's host, French Defence Minister Herve Morin, whose country holds the rotating presidency of the EU.

The EUFOR Althea mission was launched in December 2004, tasked with bringing military stability to that former part of Yugoslavia.

At the time it was the EU's biggest ever military operation. Tragedy struck in June, when a Spanish helicopter operating a peacekeeping flight crashed in the hills of central Bosnia, killing all four soldiers aboard.