Washington  - The United States named a veteran diplomat Thursday to oversee the closure of the detention camp at Guantanamo Bay and the potential transfer of prisoners to other countries.

US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton named Daniel Fried, currently the department's top official for European relations, as the envoy for shutting Guantanamo, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said.

Prague  - The European Union plans to replace its peacekeepers in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a training mission, European Union's top diplomat Javier Solana said Thursday after an informal meeting of EU defence ministers.

"The decision to go into something different, a non-executive mission which means training... was taken," Solana said, adding that it remained open when the current mission would be replaced.

Berlin  - Group of 20 (G20) finance ministers and central bankers are meeting near London Friday amid signs of renewed tensions over the action to combat the global recession and the long-term drive to tighten global market regulation.

Gathering in the neo-Jacobean splendour of the South Lodge Hotel in the rolling green hills on the outskirts of the British capital, the finance ministers from the world's leading industrial and emerging nations will also set the stage for next month's summit in London of the G20 government chiefs.

Nouakchott, Mauritania - Mauritanian presidential elections will take place as planned on June 6, Libyan leader Moamer Gaddafi said Thursday after talks there as current African Union head.

Gaddafi arrived in Mauritania Monday seeking a deal to end the political crisis that has gripped the county since the military deposed in an August 6 coup President Sidi Ould Cheikh Abdallahi.

Budapest  - The Hungarian foreign ministry issued a "Warning to those who want to work in Great Britain" Thursday, urging them to think twice about going there to escape the deepening recession at home. The British embassy in the capital, Budapest, was not amused.

A Foreign Ministry spokesman, Lajos Szelestey, sent a statement to the Hungarian state news agency MTI urging Hungarians to think long and hard before travelling to Britain despite the "serious economic situation."

Taipei  - The Dalai Lama's envoy to Taiwan Thursday blasted China's claim that the Dalai Lama's reincarnation must be endorsed by Beijing, saying it should be endorsed by the Tibetan people.

Dawa Tsering, head of the Dalai Lama's representative office in Taipei, made the response after Qiangba Puncog, chairman of the Tibetan regional government, said the Beijing government must endorse the Dalai Lama's reincarnation and would not recognize any reincarnation chosen by the Tibetan government-in-exile or pro-Dalai Lama monasteries.