Madrid - What should a great club do when it is immersed in a massive injury crisis and has slipped down to fourth in its domestic league?

Answer: sign a top-class forward to revitalize the attack - and to cheer up the frustrated fans.

This is exactly what troubled Real Madrid intend to do now, by signing Klaas Jan Huntelaar from Dutch giants Ajax.

Embattled Real president Ramon Calderon hinted on Monday evening that he was about to buy "a top-class striker", and the Spanish media are sure that he was referring to Huntelaar.

Stockholm/Madrid - Cities across Europe are busy planning festivities to ring in the New Year and those planning to uncork a bottle of champagne abroad have many foreign destinations to choose from.

The Swedish capital, Stockholm, is staging a party at the open-air museum in Skansen with thousands of expected guests.

Music and a big fireworks display are on the programme which will take place even in frosty temperatures. "If need be, wear ski trousers," said Marion Freitag of the Swedish tourist information office in Hamburg.

Shortly before midnight, guests wander outdoors to watch the fireworks display over Stockholm.

Madrid  - Atletico Madrid will not provide tickets to its fans for next week's Champions League away game against Olympique Marseille.

The Spanish club on Monday asked fans not to travel to France for the game on December 9, "given a lack of sufficient security guarantees."

The match between the two teams on October 1 in Madrid featured clashes between French fans and Spanish police.

The violence led UEFA - following a complaint from Olympique Marseille - to close off the Vicente Calderon stadium for the game against PSV Eindhoven that was played before empty stands last week.

Madrid - The debt-ridden Spanish builder Sacyr Vallehermoso said Monday it is continuing to negotiate the possible sale of its 20-per-cent stake in the country's biggest oil company Repsol YPF.

Spokeswoman Ana de Pro made the comment after Sacyr announced the sale of its highway operator subsidiary Itinere to US Citigroup for 7.9 billion euros (10 billion dollars).

The sale of Itinere allows Sacyr to cut its debt by 37 per cent to 12.5 billion euros.

Madrid  - European socialists and social democrats on Monday advocated more government intervention in the economy.

The ongoing economic crisis demonstrated the failure of the "economy of egoism" advocated by conservative parties, Spanish Socialist Party deputy leader Jose Blanco told the council of the Party of European Socialists in Madrid.

Some 30 leading politicians, including Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero and recently elected French Socialist Party leader Martine Aubry, were to discuss the first common programme of socialists and social democrats for European elections.

Madrid - Spain's former government authorized US flights transporting terrorist suspects to make stopovers in Spain, and tried to keep the illegal flights secret, the daily El Pais reported Monday.

El Pais on Sunday published a top secret Foreign Ministry document dating from 2002 and showing that the United States had requested permission for CIA flights to make "emergency landings" in Spain.

The document clearly states that the flights transported Taliban and al-Qaeda prisoners from Afghanistan to the US military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.