Berlin - Germany backs a call to boost the size of a European Union relief fund for nations facing balance of payments difficulties, a spokesman for Chancellor Angela Merkel said in Berlin Friday.

A proposal to increase the fund to 20 billion euros (25 billion dollars) was originally made by French President Nicolas Sarkozy. The fund exists to lend money to EU members that run short of foreign exchange.

Merkel's spokesman Ulrich Wilhelm said the chancellor would back Sarkozy on the issue at an EU summit on November 7 in Brussels.

London - A 40-year-old woman was charged under the Terrorism Act in Britain on Friday, following raids on homes in Manchester, northern Britain, and in the Netherlands, police said.

Houria Chahed Chentouf, from Manchester, was charged with possessing a computer memory stick, allegedly for terror-related purposes.

The charges under the Terrorism Act 2000 relate to possessing an article which gave rise to suspicions that "the possession was for a purpose connected with the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism."

London - A couple accused of drugs offences admitted in court on Friday that they had sold drugs, including cocaine and ecstasy, to the British singer Amy Winehouse.

The 34-year-old man and his 22-year-old partner pleaded guilty to drugs charges.

The prosecution in the case has alleged that the pair filmed Winehouse apparently smoking crack cocaine and then sold the images to The Sun newspaper after they had sold the drugs to her.

Nuremberg, Germany - German talks on boosting government spending to offset recession are to continue through the weekend, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Friday.

Pump-priming is planned by a broad range of western countries as world gloom spreads.

Merkel said, "It's important that such an ambitious plan fits in with the measures by other nations."

Speaking in Nuremberg, she noted that a G20 summit she is to attend in Washington on November 15 would also review how to boost the economies of the emerging markets.