Paris  - European Union foreign ministers are to meet early next week to discuss the crisis in South Ossetia, with the possible option of calling an emergency summit of the 27-member bloc, officials said Saturday.

A statement released by the French EU presidency said French President Nicolas Sarkozy had set as priorities the immediate cessation of hostilities, the observation of the territorial integrity of Georgia and the withdrawal of Georgian and Russian troops.

Harare  - South African President Thabo Mbeki touched down in the Zimbabwean capital Harare Saturday evening for talks with the leaders of the country's political parties about their progress in negotiations on a unity government.

Mbeki was met at Harare international airport by Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe and a number of government ministers.

Mbeki, the Southern African Development Community's mediator in Zimbabwe's political crisis, is scheduled to hold talks with Mugabe, Movement for Democratic Change

Strasbourg, France  - The Council of Europe again called Saturday for an immediate ceasefire in South Ossetia, the breakaway Georgian region where Russian and Georgian forces are battling each other.

The parties to the conflict should begin a dialogue, council Secretary General Terry Davis said in Strasbourg, France on Saturday.

"I urge everyone to stop the shooting and stop the bombing and get round a conference table. A total ceasefire is the only way to stop the killing," Davis said.

London/Stockholm  - A combined European Union, US and NATO delegation is to travel to Georgia to try to broker a ceasefire in the fighting between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia, Britain's Defence Secretary said Saturday.

Des Browne told Sky News that the delegation, which will also include representatives of OSCE, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, will go to the Caucasus republic on Saturday evening.

Berlin  - Oskar Lafontaine, the maverick former Social Democrat (SPD) politician, is to lead the socialist Left party in state elections in Germany's western Saarland next year, after gaining the clear support of Left members in the state Saturday.

Lafontaine, who walked out of the government of former SPD chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in 1999 after just six months as Finance Minister, garnered 122 of 132 votes cast at the party congress held at Neunkirchen in the state.

Warsaw  - The presidents of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia condemned Saturday in a joint statement the actions of Russian forces fighting in the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia.

The declaration was "sharp, but the situation calls for it," Polish President Lech Kaczynski told journalists in Warsaw.

He described the Russian intervention as incompatible with international law and an "act of aggression."