Prague  - Czech President Vaclav Klaus's meeting with leaders of the European Parliament Friday ended in a rift, according to reports citing meeting's participants and Klaus' office.

The president, who is an outspoken critic of the European Union, was angered by questions from Daniel Cohn-Bendit, the head of the European Greens.

Klaus' aide told reporters after the meeting that the president "considers Cohn-Bendit's behaviour a big provocation."

Cohn-Bendit said that Klaus was infuriated by his question on his relationship to Irish businessman and anti-EU activist Declan Ganley, who successfully rallied opposition to the Lisbon Treaty in Ireland, aktualne. cz news web site reported.

Nairobi  - The United Nations' Special Representative for Somalia Ahmedou Ould-Abdallah Friday called for the release of all hostages being held in Somali as a show of good faith during a Muslim holiday.

"On the eve of Eid al-Adha, a period of forgiveness, I appeal to all Somalis to help to ensure that those hostages being held, both Somalis and foreigners, are allowed to enjoy their freedom and to return home safe and sound," Ould-Abdallah said in statement.

Journalists and foreign aid workers have increasingly become targets for kidnap and murder this year, mainly in south and central Somalia where Islamist insurgents are waging a bloody conflict against the government.

Paris - French President Nicolas Sarkozy has chosen the head of his ruling Union for a Popular Movement (UMP) party, Patrick Devedjian, to implement his ambitious economic stimulus plan, Sarkozy's office said on Friday.

The 64-year-old Devedjian will become part of the government and occupy a ministerial-level post in the office of Prime Minister Francois Fillon.

On Thursday, Sarkozy presented an economic stimulus plan that will cost some 26 billion euros (33 billion dollars) to implement.

It includes support for the ailing auto and housing sectors, accelerated state payments of tax credits and rebates to French industry and accelerated public infrastructure investments.

Nairobi  - Over 90,000 civilians who fled heavy fighting in the east of the Democratic Republic of Congo are unaccounted for, the UN refugee agency UNHCR said Friday.

UNHCR spokesman Ron Redmond said that the agency had taken advantage of a lull in the fighting to enter the Rutshuru area, 80 kilometres north of the Goma, the capital of North Kivu province.

The UNCHR team found that three UNCHR-run camps for internally displaced in the area - Nyongera, Kasasa and Dumez - had been forcefully emptied and destroyed.

Three other makeshift camps were found to be empty.

Madrid  - The Spanish government Friday denied allegations that the United States had illegally flown terrorist suspects via Spain to its military base in Guantanamo, Cuba.

"There has not been nor will there be violations of human rights on earth, sea or air" under the current Socialist government, Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa Fernandez de la Vega said.

The conservative opposition earlier claimed that nine out of 11 flights organized by the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) took place under current Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero, who took office in 2004.

Vilnius - New Lithuanian prime minister Andrius Kubilius presented his incoming government's plans to parliament for approval Friday, promptly laying the blame for Lithuania's current economic problems squarely with his predecessor, Gediminas Kirkilas.

"It is regrettable that in his time, the IMF warned that the government needed to take action to avoid an imminent crisis. No action was taken, so we have a crisis," Kubilius said to howls of protest from Kirkilas' supporters.

The Lithuanian economy has recorded some of Europe's highest growth rates over the last decade, but that progress has slowed markedly this year and many in the largest and most economically powerful of the Baltic states fear the country may slide into recession soon.