Washington  - The United States urged North Korea on Wednesday to back off plans to renew work at its nuclear reactor site, warning of further isolation if Pyongyang proceeds with kicking out international inspectors.

"We believe that if the North Koreans do so, it would only deepen its isolation," Rice told reporters in New York, where she was attending meetings on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

New York/Moscow  - A meeting of world powers this week to explore slapping fresh sanctions on Iran over its nuclear activities has been cancelled, top diplomats said Wednesday.

Russia was the first to pull out, citing Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov's busy schedule on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York. US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice later agreed that more time was needed before the senior-level meeting.

Brussels - France intends to call an emergency summit of the world's leading economic powers before the end of the year to respond to the global financial crisis, French Europe Minister Jean-Pierre Jouyet confirmed Wednesday.

France, the current holder of the EU's rotating presidency, "wants to summon a meeting based on the Group of Eight (leading industrialized nations) before the end of the year, with one topic the regulation of financial markets," Jouyet told the European Parliament.

"We need new, common rules on an international level for a better control of financial markets," he said.

New York, Sept 24: Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh is scheduled to meet Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao and World Bank President Robert B. Zoellick here today on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.

Dr. Singh reached New York last night on the first leg of his 10-day visit to the United States and France.

New York  - Sarah Palin, vice presidential running mate of US presidential candidate John McCain, held her first-ever direct talks with foreign leaders Monday, meeting Afghan President Hamid Karzai and Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.

The talks were part of a series of scheduled meetings for Palin - an effort to boost the one-term Alaska governor's foreign policy credibility - on the sidelines of an annual gathering of world leaders at the United Nations.

Washington  - The United States called on Myanmar to release all political prisoners, but welcomed the freeing Tuesday of the longest-held dissident and thousands of others who had been locked up.

US State Department deputy spokesman Robert Wood said the release of 76-year-old journalist U Win Tin, who had been held for nearly 20 years, was "long overdue, but a very positive development."

U Win Tin was one of 9,002 prisoners released in a general amnesty.