Brussels - Ambitious plans to kickstart the European Union's economy by putting 5 billion euros (6.3 billion dollars) of community funds into high-tech projects went back to the drawing board Monday, as EU foreign ministers argued over where the money should come from.

Failure to reach an agreement on the proposal would represent a major embarrassment for European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso, who has called it a key part of the bloc's response to the economic crisis.

Ministers meeting in Brussels agreed that the money should not come out of the EU's budget for 2008, as had been originally proposed by the EU's executive, but failed to agree on alternative sources of funding, diplomatic sources said.

Brussels - Officials in Brussels on Monday urged European Union governments to back their plans for a 600-million-euro (756-million-dollar) plan designed to boost ties with their former-Soviet neighbours.

Benita Ferrero-Waldner, the EU's external affairs commissioner, said the bloc's so-called "Eastern Partnership" had become even more necessary in the wake of the August conflict between Georgia and Russia and January's gas standoff between Russia and Ukraine.

Brussels - The foreign ministers of France and the Czech Republic said Monday they would be holding regular talks following extensive media reports suggesting strong disagreements between the former and current presidencies of the European Union.

"We were sometimes very surprised to discover in the press that we were in a bad mood, Karel (Schwarzenberg) and I. This is not true at all," said French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner.

Brussels - Sri Lanka's government and the Tamil Tiger rebels (LTTE) sh

Brussels - A meeting of the leaders of the crisis-hit countries of Central and Eastern Europe set for March 1 is not a sign of panic or a split within the European Union, diplomats from the countries involved said Friday.

EU leaders are set to hold an emergency summit on the economic crisis on that date, and the leaders of Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, the Baltic states, Bulgaria and Romania are due to hold a meeting of their own just before it.

Brussels - The European Union's explosive expansion across Central and Eastern Europe in 2004 was an economic success, despite the financial turmoil now sweeping the region, the EU's executive said on Friday.

"The enlargement has emerged as a major success for the EU and its citizens ... It has greatly boosted the economies and improved living standards in the new member states, thereby also benefiting the old member states," the European Commission wrote in a report.