Copenhagen - A two-day conference hosted by Denmark on how to halt arms smuggling into the Gaza Strip opened on Wednesday, the Dutch foreign ministry said.

The meeting was organized in conjunction with the United States to review how international help could be offered to prevent weapons smuggling, legal issues as well as charting the routes used by smugglers. It includes officials from the United States, several European Union member states and Norway.

Preventing the flow of arms to Hamas-controlled Gaza was one of the conditions Israel demanded on ending its 22-day offensive on Gaza last month.

Dhaka  - The Danish minister for Climate and Energy will take a tour to Bangladesh costal districts Tuesday to see climate vulnerability of the South Asian country, officials said Sunday.

The Danish minister, Connie Hedegaard, is scheduled to be in Dhaka on a two-day official visit beginning on Monday.

She will discuss with her Bangladesh counterpart Mustafizur Rahman about Dhaka's preparedness for the United Nations Conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen, where world leaders will meet to agree on a new treaty to replace the Kyoto Protocol in December.

Copenhagen - Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen has decided to retire, he said in published remarks Tuesday.

"I have had fantastic years abroad, and there are many I want to thank," Gravesen said in a statement published by the Vejle Amts Folkeblad newspaper.

"If I had the chance, I would have done it again," he added.

Recently, there had been speculation that Gravesen would make a comeback with his former club Vejle Boldklub.

"I am 32, and turn 33 in March, so before age and health decide it for me, I wanted to call it quits myself," Gravesen said.

Copenhagen - Over a third of Danish internet users have created a profile on the social networking site Facebook, giving Denmark a top position, a Danish newspaper reported Monday.

Currently, some 1.8 million out of the 5.5 million Danish nationals, or 34 per cent are registered on Facebook. This percentage puts the country past Canada where 33 per cent of the population had registered a profile as of the beginning of 2009, the Berlingske Tidende newspaper said.

The newspaper cited a a survey by IT company Komfo, which concluded that an unusually high proportion of Danish Facebook users were middle-aged or elderly.

Copenhagen - Danish voters still narrowly favour the introduction of Europe's joint currency, the euro, but are in no hurry to vote in a referendum, two surveys showed Wednesday.

The results were published on the eve of a parliamentary hearing on the euro.

A survey commissioned by banking group Danske Bank suggested that 41.4 per cent of voters wanted to introduce the euro while 39.8 per cent were against replacing the krone.

About one in five were undecided, according to the survey based on telephone interviews with 1,060 voters.

Copenhagen - Danish banking shares opened higher on Monday after the announcement that the government and opposition had agreed on a new banking package.

The package worth 100 billion kroner (17.8 billion dollars) was unveiled late Sunday and aimed to prevent "businesses and citizens getting caught in a credit squeeze," the government said.