Brussels - The European Union's investment bank is to boost to almost 7 billion euros (8.9 billion dollars) its loans to the auto industry to develop climate-friendly cars, but it cannot save the sector from economic crisis, the bank's manager said Monday.

"By the end of June, we will probably have approved loans totalling 7 billion euros" to the car industry, the vast majority being awarded to clean-car projects, Philippe Maystadt, president of the European Investment Bank, told journalists in Brussels.

Brussels - Shares in fallen Belgian banking giant Fortis surged by over 40 per cent on Monday morning as investors gave an enthusiastic welcome to a sell-off deal agreed with French bank BNP Paribas over the weekend.

As markets opened, Fortis shares jumped up to 1.42 euros (1.80 dollars), 42.6 per cent above the close on Friday. They fell back during early trading to 1.20 euros, 25 per cent above Friday's close.

Brussels  - The Belgian government, the French bank BNP Paribas SA and Fortis, the Belgian-Dutch financial services company, agreed overnight to a plan for the divestment of Fortis' Belgian financial units.

BNP Paribas, France's largest bank, is to take over 75 per cent of Fortis Bank in a deal valued at 2.88 billion euros (3.64 billion dollars), the Belgian news agency Belga reported Saturday, citing the government.

The remaining 25-per-cent stake would remain in the hands of the government, the report said.

Sana'a, Yemen  - A total of 16 suspected al-Qaeda terrorists will go on trial in Sana'a next week for a string of attacks including the killing of two Belgian tourists, a court source revealed Friday.

The 16 defendants comprise 11 Yemenis, four Syrians and a Saudi national of Yemeni origin, and will be charged with plotting attacks against foreigners, Western interests, vital state installations and oil facilities in Yemen.

Among the charges the group will face is the attack on Belgian tourists in the south-eastern province of Hadhramout in January 2008, the source, who asked anonymity, told Deutsche Presse Agentur dpa.

Brussels - US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton discussed the future of detainees in the notorious Guantanamo Bay prison with European Union officials in Brussels on Friday in the highest-level talks to date on the subject.

"I thanked the EU for working with us to determine a policy regarding detainees from Guantanamo ... If we determine that it would be appropriate for a particular detainee to be relocated, we will discuss that with our friends and partners, like the EU," she said.

Brussels - Russia could join a controversial US plan to deploy missile-defence systems in Europe which has provoked outrage in Moscow, US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Friday just hours before a meeting with her Russian counterpart.

"We believe that Russia and the US have the opportunity to cooperate on missile defence - on joint research, joint development, and even eventually, assuming we can reach such an agreement, joint deployment," Clinton said after talks with European Union officials in Brussels.