Prague  - The European Union (EU) joined the international community Sunday in strongly condemning North Korea's launch of a long-range rocket.

A statement issued by the Czech government, which currently holds the EU's sixth-month rotating presidency, said the North Korean action placed additional strains on regional stability and was contrary to United Nations resolutions.

"These actions place additional strains on regional stability at a time when the unresolved nuclear issue on the Korean Peninsula requires mutual confidence building," the EU said.

Prague - European Union finance ministers said Saturday that matching US accounting rules, which allow US banks discretion over pricing their impaired mortgage assets, bore "critical importance" so European banks are not operating at a disadvantage.

The ministers, meeting informally in Prague, called on the continent's setter of accounting rules, the International Accounting Standards Board, "to cooperate closely" with its US counterpart "with the aim of achieving equivalent treatment... in order to avoid risks of competitive distortions."

Prague - US President Barack Obama was set to arrive in Prague on Saturday, the fourth stop on his five-country tour of Europe, where he is scheduled to meet EU leaders and deliver a key public speech on nuclear non-proliferation.

Obama is scheduled to address Europe on Sunday - a highlight of his stop in the Czech Republic - with historic Prague as his backdrop. The event comes as countries across Europe commemorate two decades since the collapse of Communism in Europe.

Prague  - The notorious Czech provocateur of an artist, David Cerny, had the privilege last summer to shake hands with Condoleezza Rice, the then US secretary of state.

Passing an alley of garbage cans to do so, she showed up at one of Prague's many popular yet downscale cafes which happened to double as a centre for supporters of US plans to build a missile shield base in the Czech Republic, Cerny among them.

But when US President Barack Obama arrives in the Czech capital this weekend, Cerny and his associates won't get near that sort of access. "It does not look good," the artist said.

Prague - The European Union's finance ministers Friday praised the deal reached a day earlier by the world's largest economies on new global financial regulation and a boost in funding for key international institutions.

Arriving for a set of informal meetings in Prague, the EU finance ministers called the results of Group of 20 (G20) summit, made in a bid to overcome the global recession, a success.