Stockholm - A Swedish pilot boat averted a potential accident in the busy waters between Sweden and Denmark when it detected a drifting freighter, reports said Friday.

The Swedish pilot boat was on a routine mission late Thursday in the Oresund straits when the crew detected a Dutch freighter apparently heading for shoals in Swedish waters, the Helsingborgs Dagblad newspaper reported.

Stockholm - Sweden has yet to get its first full-time female rabbi after a selected candidate withdrew her name for the post for personal reasons, reports said Thursday.

Rabbi Chava Koster of the Village Temple in New York, a Reform congregation, was in June unanimously selected as non-Orthodox rabbi by the Jewish Community of Stockholm.

The community has some 4,500 members, and is the largest in the country. An estimated 18,000 to 20,000 Jews live in Sweden.

Koster, 46, had agreed on salary and other employment terms when she withdrew her name, citing "personal reasons," the Dagen newspaper reported.

Stockholm - The Swedish cabinet Thursday approved to provide civilian observers and other personnel to support a European Union ceasefire mission to Georgia.

The Swedish contribution would number some 25 personnel to staff a field office, a government statement said.

"The Swedish contribution of personnel and equipment is an expression of Sweden's commitment to peace and security in the southern Caucasus," the ministers for defence, justice and international development cooperation said in a joint statement.

The exact division of observers and other staff was yet to be decided, officials told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Budapest - A venerable Hungarian porcelain factory said Wednesday it has landed an order to make china tableware for Swedish home furnishing retailer Ikea.

Zsolnay Porcelanmanufaktura expects to sign a seven-year deal shortly to supply 5,000 tons of china a year for Ikea starting in September 2009, the MTI news agency reported.

While Zsolnay would be one of about 1,300 Ikea suppliers, the contract would be a lifeline for the loss-making 156-year-old company.

Stockholm - Swedish group Husqvarna, a leading maker of chainsaws, lawnmowers and other garden equipment, issued a profit warning Tuesday and announced it would cut 850 jobs.

The move was due to a drop in demand in North America and Europe, the group said.

"The third quarter marks the end of the gardening season, and the effect of a weak season has a strong impact on this quarter," chief executive Bengt Andersson said in a statement.

Andersson added that "we have also noted greater caution on the part of our professional customers, especially in the construction industry."

Stockholm - After two years in office, Sweden's centre-right coalition trails the opposition by over 15 per cent, according to a new survey published Tuesday.

Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt's four-party coalition has dropped from 48.2 per cent to 38.8 per cent, according to the Synovate poll commissioned by the Dagens Nyheter newspaper.

Reinfeldt was slated to outline his government's policies later Tuesday during the formal opening of parliament after the summer recess.

In an op-ed piece in Dagens Nyheter's Tuesday edition, Reinfeldt and the leaders of the other three parties in his coalition unveiled plans to slash income taxes by 15 billion kronor (2.2 billion dollars) as of 2009.