Brussels, Dec. 3: North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer has warned that terrorists have the potential to strike in western Europe.

“The war on terror (in Afghanistan and Pakistan’s Tribal Areas) must continue and succeed. If we don’t succeed, these people (the terrorists) will hit Western Europe like Islamabad and Mumbai,” the Daily Times quoted Scheffer as telling Pakistani journalists at the NATO headquarters here.

He said it was important for Pakistan and India to lower tempers and join hands against the perpetrators of the Mumbai bloodbath.

Brussels - The European Union and Russia on Tuesday re- opened high-level talks on a new strategic treaty which EU leaders froze in September to protest Russia's invasion of Georgia.

The meeting between Russia's ambassador to the EU, Vladimir Chizhov, and EU negotiator Eneko Landaburu was intended to discuss the "general architecture" of a future deal, sources in the European Commission, the EU's executive, said.

Relations between Russia and the EU are currently governed by a Partnership and Cooperation Agreement (PCA) agreed with the government of Boris Yeltsin in 1997.

Brussels - European Jewish groups plan to train volunteers to protect their local comm

Brussels - NATO foreign ministers were groping for unity on Tuesday as they debated whether the alliance should re-open high- level talks with Russia and how closely it should cooperate with membership hopefuls Georgia and Ukraine.

"The first point is to avoid in any case disagreements and divisions among our members, because otherwise we'd give a very bad message to the outside world," Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini told journalists as he arrived at the Brussels meeting.

Brussels - European Union governments endorsed Tuesday plans to raise the total amount of money available to member states which run into trouble as a result of the global credit crunch - from 12 billion euros (15 billion dollars) to 25 billion euros.

In a statement, a council of finance ministers meeting in Brussels said the higher ceiling was needed because of "the evolution of the international economic situation" and because the EU has expanded to accommodate 12 new member states since the facility was created, in 2002.

Brussels - European Union finance ministers agreed Tuesday to raise the minimum level of bank deposit guarantees for their citizens, from 20,000 euros (25,000 dollars) to 100,000 euros by the end of 2011.

In the meantime, the safety net is to be raised to 50,000 euros at the end of June 2009.

Individual member states will be free to raise these minimum levels, while the pay-out period in the event of a bank going bankrupt will be reduced, from three months to three days.