Brussels - Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's plans for a Europe-wide security pact look set to be Russia's priority at the European Union-Russia summit in the French resort of Nice on Friday.

Medvedev first spoke of his desire to create a "treaty on the basic principles for security and intergovernmental relations in the Euro-Atlantic region" in a speech in Berlin on June 5. He added details in a speech in the French spa town of Evian on October 8.

Nice, France - When European Union and Russian leaders meet in the French resort of Nice on Friday, the following points are expected to draw their attention:

FINANCIAL CRISIS: The EU-Russia summit comes less than 24 hours before the leaders of the world's most powerful nations meet in Washington to discuss a response to the global financial crisis.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the host of Friday's meeting,

Paris - Leaders meeting in Washington on Saturday to deal with the financial crisis must build the basis of "a new Bretton Woods," Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said in an interview published Thursday in the French daily Le Figaro.

In reconstructing the world's economic system, as the 1944 Bretton Woods meeting did, heads of the world's leading industrial nations must establish "new international credit institutions, a new accounting system, a new risk insurance system," Medvedev said.

Paris - Russia will not deploy missiles in its European enclave of Kaliningrad if US president-elect Barack Obama cancels the planned American anti-missile defence system, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said in an interview published Thursday in the French daily Le Figaro.

"We are prepared to drop our decision to deploy missiles at Kaliningrad if the new American administration decides to abandon its anti-missile system," Medvedev said.

He noted that, based on early reactions, Obama was "thinking about it."

London, Nov. 13 : The Russian Parliament has announced that it would rush through a constitutional amendment that could see Vladimir Putin return to the presidency within weeks.

According to The Telegraph, the State Duma has said that it would meet on Friday to pass legislation that could allow Putin to return to the Kremlin for 12 years.

Moscow - A careless crew member caused a weekend accident on a Russian nuclear submarine that cost 20 lives, an inquiry showed Thursday.

The inquiry established that a sailor set off the "anti-fire system on board the submarine without authorization and for no reason," the Itar-Tass news agency quoted a prosecution spokesman as saying.