Barcelona - Spain's Rafael Nadal, world number one, stepped down from the Davis Cup final against Argentina later this month, due to a knee injury.

Nadal himself explained his decision Monday in Barcelona, after undergoing several medical tests.

Spain is set to play Argentina in the Davis Cup final November 21- 23, on an indoor carpet court in the Argentine coastal city of Mar del Plata.

Argentina seeks its first-ever "salad bowl," as the tournament trophy is known, while Spain is seeking its third title.

Nadal, 22, quit his Paris Masters quarter-final 10 days ago, when he lost 6-1 to Russian Nikolay Davydenko. He was suffering from tendinitis in his right knee.

Brussels - Most of the money given by the European Union to member states is well spent, though problems remain when it comes to payments designed to boost employment, EU officials said Monday.

Officials in Brussels said the bloc's annual audit debunked the "myth" that EU spending is either mismanaged or riddled with fraud.

It found that more than 98 per cent of direct payments made in 2007 to farmers or on administrative expenditure was error free.

Other budget areas such as research grants and humanitarian aid also registered errors of less than 5 per cent.

However, spending in so-called structural funds - money designed to boost employment in the EU's poorest regions - remains a problem.

Bratislava - Attention, travellers to Slovakia: beware of drunken bears.

Bears will eat fruit that has fallen to the ground and fermented, and while the fruit's alcohol content is low, bears can eat such large amounts that they become tipsy, Slovakian forestry expert Miroslav Saniga said.

Befuddled bears have been known to approach humans, and they will attack if they feel provoked, Slovakia's TASR news agency quoted Saniga on Monday as saying.

Slovakia's biggest risk zone is the Velka Fatra mountains, which include a national park, in the centre of the East European nation, Saniga said.

Berlin - NATO's military operations in Afghanistan are a decisive test of the military alliance, Chancellor Angela Merkel said Monday in Berlin.

Addressing a conference of the German Atlantic Society, she said NATO's acceptance, success and worldwide standing depended on what it achieved in Afghanistan.

She added she had high expectations of the cross-border NATO summit to be held next April in Kehl, Germany and Strasbourg, France, marking the 60th anniversary of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Sacramento - California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger urged opponents of California voters' ban last week on gay marriage to keep fighting and indicated his hope that state courts would step in to overturn it.

The statements to CNN marked the clearest comments by the Republican leader of the largest state in the US. The former movie star also predicted that the 18,000 gay and lesbian couples who have already wed would not see their marriages nullified by the initiative.

Rio de Janeiro - Away from football stadiums since he resigned as South Africa coach in April, Brazilian coach Carlos Alberto Parreira admitted Monday that he misses the thrill of the sport, but noted that he is no longer willing to work away from Rio de Janeiro, where his family lives.