Brussels - European Jews on Monday marked the 70th anniversary of Nazi Germany's Kristallnacht pogrom while warning that their situation in Europe is worse than it was 60 years ago.

"Today we feel worse than after the Second World War," Moshe Kantor, president of the European Jewish Congress (EJC), said at the ceremonies in Brussels marking the Kristallnacht.

"What politicians and governments nowadays in Europe permit themselves is something which we could not have imagined 10 or 20 years ago," Kantor said.

There were now more neo-Nazis and Nazi sympathisers in Europe than there were Jews, he said. Increasingly, remembrance of the Holocaust is fading away.

Brussels - The European Commission said Monday it was considering lending a "small" amount of money to cash-strapped Iceland, but only after its government resolved its disputes with European Union member states such as Britain.

"The commission plans to propose to the member states and the European Parliament macro financial assistance in the form of loans, supplementing a program by the International Monetary Fund (IMF)," said Johannes Laitenberger, spokesman for the EU executive in Brussels.

Brussels - The European Union is to send a fleet of frigates and spotter aircraft to the sea off Somalia in order to combat piracy there, the bloc's foreign ministers decided Monday.

The decision, taken by ministers at their regular monthly meeting in Brussels, gives the green light to the five to seven frigates plus support aircraft of "Operation Atalanta" to deploy to the Horn of Africa around mid-December, officials said.

Brussels - China should work more closely with the European Union to boost development and stability in Africa, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels on Monday said.

Both the EU and China play a growing role in Africa, and "in this new context, it would seem advantageous to coordinate the EU's and China's efforts more closely around priorities which reflect Africa's needs," a statement from the ministers said.

Brussels- The European Union is ready to toughen its sanctions on Myanmar if no progress is made on democracy, but would consider easing them if the situation improved, EU foreign ministers meeting in Brussels said Monday.

EU member states "deplore the lack of progress made this year towards a genuine transition to democracy" and are "prepared to revise, amend or reinforce the measures (they have) already adopted to keep pace with developments," a joint statement said.

Brussels - After leading the way in responding to the world financial crisis, Europe could be facing headwinds as it attempts to press on with a rapid and comprehensive overhaul of the global finance sector.

Gone are the high-minded calls for sweeping changes to the international financial system as proposed only a few weeks ago by French President Nicolas Sarkozy when panic selling engulfed share markets and sent shock waves across the world economy.