Stockholm  - Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt and his Polish counterpart Donald Tusk discussed broader cooperation in the Baltic region during talks Wednesday.

Both countries border the Baltic Sea, and Reinfeldt noted that eight countries in the region are members of the European Union.

Ramallah  - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert met Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas on Tuesday evening for their last talks before his ruling Kadima party chooses a new leader.

Olmert's offices indicated the meeting at Olmert's West Jerusalem residence late Tuesday went well. The Kadima primary is Wednesday.

The leaders focussed on the status of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians which were renewed in January with a view to implementing the first phase of the international "road map" peace plan.

Washington  - The United States on Tuesday welcomed the power sharing arrangement worked out between Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai and Washington expects the deal to be fully carried out by both sides.

The deal called for Mugabe to end his 28-year monopoly on power by naming Tsvangirai, the leader of the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) as prime minister and divide cabinet posts evenly between the MDC and Mugabe's Zanu-PF party.

Kabul  - US Defence Secretary Robert Gates arrived in Kabul on a surprise visit Tuesday for talks with coalition commanders and Afghan leader Hamid Karzai amid growing concerns that the resurgent Taliban are gaining strength.

Afghan and international military sources revealed that Gates was expected to hold talks with US-led coalition commanders on the ground to get first hand information on fight against the resurgent Taliban.

Washington  - The US Federal Reserve kept interest rates unchanged on Tuesday, citing both growth and inflation risks to the US economy amid an ongoing financial crisis in the country.

In a unanimous decision, the US central bank's federal funds rate was left at 2 per cent, despite some expectation that the week's financial turmoil might lead to a cut in the benchmark rate.

Wall Street stocks on Monday posted their worst losses since the September 2001 terrorist attacks, but had recovered slightly Tuesday afternoon.

Warsaw  - Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk met Tuesday with central bankers to plan the country's euro adoption, amid doubts Warsaw can maintain the strict economic criteria to join the 15-nation euro zone.

Tusk insisted Poland would meet the economic criteria for membership in 2011, and added a detailed schedule for entry will be prepared in October.

"The government, the Monetary Policy Council and the National Bank of Poland are ready for close cooperation to achieve this aim," Tusk said after the meeting.