Bucharest  - Romania is ready to leave its 498 soldiers in Iraq if the Iraqi government asks them to stay, Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu was quoted Wednesday as saying.

Cologne, Germany  - Bundesliga club Cologne have confirmed they plan to bring their long lost son Lukas Podolski back home from Bayern Munich.

Club president Wolfgang Overath and general manager Michael Meier said that Cologne have talked with the relevant parties and are now waiting for a signal from Munich on the future of the Germany striker.

However Meier told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa Wednesday a transfer during the forthcoming winter break could be ruled out.

"It's not an issue for this winter. Bayern have decided that he is staying for the time being," he said.

San Francisco  - Online shopping is expected to drop for the first time ever this holiday season in a new indication of just how much the average US consumer is cutting back on spending.

The report by web tracking firm Comscore said that online holiday shopping had already dropped 4 per cent in November compared to last year, to 8.51 billion dollars. For the entire season the company predicted that the online shopping total would remain essentially flat at 29.2 billion dollars. That compares to last year's growth of holiday sales by 19 per cent.

Brussels  - The European Union on Wednesday called on member states to help the bloc avoid a deep recession by mobilizing 200 billion euros (260 billion dollars) in extra spending and tax cuts.

"Exceptional times call for exceptional measures," said the head of the EU's executive, European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

"Our plan will boost demand and thus save and create millions of jobs," he said.

According to the head of the EU executive, the bulk of the money - 170 billion euros - should come from national governments, with the remaining 30 billion being made available by the European Commission and the Luxembourg-based European Investment Bank (EIB).

Johannesburg  - Sounding gloomy about the prospects for reaching agreement with President Robert Mugabe's Zanu-PF on a unity government, Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change on Wednesday proposed taking over some of government's responsibilities.

In a statement issued on the second day of fresh multi-party talks in South Africa, MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai said in the absence of "any progress" the MDC was now "committing itself to addressing the humanitarian crisis in Zimbabwe."

"In the absence of a legitimate government in Zimbabwe, in the absence of a government of Zimbabwe that puts the will and welfare of the people first, the MDC must take on this leadership responsibility," Tsvangirai said.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama announced Wednesday that he was establishing an advisory board to help lead the country out of the economic crisis and named a former chairman of the Federal Reserve to head it.

Paul Volcker will head the Economic Recovery Advisory Board, which will be tasked with coming up with ideas for creating jobs and stabilizing the financial system, Obama said. The board will offer independent and non-partisan analysis of the economic crisis and formulate ideas for reversing the trend.