Brussels - Belgium's right-wing Flemish party Vlaams Belang (VB), known for its anti-foreigner rhetoric, Saturday mourned the car accident death of rightist Austrian politicial Joerg Haider.

Brussels  - The governments of France, Belgium and Luxembourg have agreed to guarantee the financing of regional banking group Dexia for at least a year, the three administrations confirmed in a statement Thursday.

"In order to support the group's activity and consolidate its development, the three governments have jointly undertaken to guarantee new interbank and institutional financing ... starting today and lasting until 31 October 2009," the statement said.

Brussels - Belgium's former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene is to head the board of the struggling Franco-Belgian financial service group Dexia, Belgium's Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced Tuesday after an overnight crisis meeting in Brussels.

French banker and BNP Paribas executive Pierre Mariani is to serve as as chief executive. Mariani is currently a senior executive vice president at France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, France's largest bank.

Amsterdam  - The Dutch government has issued state bonds worth 8.64 billion euros (11.76 billion dollars), the government said in a statement on Monday.

Part of the issue will be used to help finance the takeover of the Dutch division of former Belgian-Dutch bank and insurance giant Fortis.

On Friday, the Dutch nationalized the entire Dutch Fortis division, paying some 16.8 billion euros.

On Monday, financial analysts from SNS Securities, Petercam and Dresdner Kleinwort calculated the stock value of Fortis at the Dutch exchanges around 8.225 billion euros.

If accurate, then each of the 2.35 billion shares is worth 3.5 euros per share.

Brussels  - A demonstration by unions for more buying power disrupted transport Monday across Belgium.

Amsterdam - The governments of Belgium and Luxembourg have transferred their shares in bank and insurance giant Fortis to the Netherlands, including the Dutch ABN Amro banking division.

Dutch newswire ANP reported Friday that Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme had made the announcement following the Belgian government's weekly meeting.

The agreement is worth some 16.8 billion euros (23.27 billion dollars), Leterme was quoted as saying.