Brussels  - The European Union is ready to bail out Romania, the latest European victim of the global credit crunch, the bloc's finance ministers said after a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday.

"In view of the adverse effects of the global financial turmoil on the economic and financial situation in Romania, the (EU's) Council Presidency and the Commission express the European Union's readiness to support Romania in avoiding risks of increasing market pressures and in achieving the orderly unwinding of imbalances," ministers said in a statement.

Brussels  - European Union finance ministers Tuesday agreed to allow member states to permanently reduce VAT rates in labour- intensive sectors such as catering or cleaning, diplomats said.

The deal, brokered by the Czech presidency of the EU with the help of the European Commission, was expected to end months of wrangling about the effectiveness of such a measure.

While some member states had insisted it would help create new jobs at a time of economic crisis, others had argued it would merely result in a fall in tax revenues.

Brussels - US Vice President Joe Biden was Tuesday holding talks in Brussels with the chief of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and with European ambassadors to NATO on how to step up the alliance's efforts in Afghanistan.

The talks come just five days after US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the NATO headquarters, suggesting the new US administration was keen to re-engage with its European allies as it struggles to defeat the Taliban insurgency.

Brussels  - Eurogroup finance ministers were meeting in Brussels on Monday amid growing concerns that the European economy may get stuck in recession until
2010, prompting possible new bail-outs of troubled countries and shedding some 6 million jobs in the process.

Latest projections from the European Central Bank (ECB) suggest euro area gross domestic product (GDP) could shrink by up to 3.2 per cent this year, far more than previously expected.

GDP could either fall by 0.7 per cent or rise at the same rate in 2010, the ECB said.

Brussels - Eurogroup finance ministers were to meet in Brussels on Monday evening amid growing concerns that the European economy may get stuck in recession until 2010, shedding some 6 million jobs in the process.

Latest projections from the European Central Bank (ECB) suggest euro area gross domestic product (GDP) could shrink by up to 3.2 per cent this year, far more than previously expected.

GDP could either fall by 0.7 per cent or rise at the same rate in 2010, the ECB said.

Brussels - The European Union is giving 700,000 euros (890,000 dollars) in aid to help provide drinking water, blankets and medicines to some 50,000 people affected by recent floods in Pacific islands, officials in Brussels said Monday.

The decision acts on an EU fact-finding mission to the region, which identified the region's most urgent needs.

These include the provision of clean drinking water, fixing sewerage systems and medicines designed to treat and prevent outbreaks of diarrhoea, respiratory infection, malaria and dengue fever.