Frankfurt  - European markets faced up to a Black Friday as a wave of panic selling triggered by growing recession fears sent shares and currencies into a dramatic tailspin.

Already under siege as profit worries have grown, shares across Europe spiralled down after the OPEC oil producing nations' cartel cut production raising concerns about increase energy costs as the world economy was engulfed by a sharp slowdown.

With Wall Street slumping by more than 4 per cent shortly after its Friday opening, investors in Europe continued to dump stocks leaving the blue-chip Stoxx 50 down 6.1 per cent at 2090 as European trading came to an end.

Beijing - Asian and European leaders plan to urge Myanmar's military rulers to be more tolerant toward opposition political parties and release political prisoners, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

The leaders attending the biennial Asia-Europe Meeting would urge Myanmar to "engage all stakeholders in an inclusive political process in order to achieve national reconciliation and economic and social development."

Beijing  - Asian and European leaders plan to call for new goals to fight climate change up to 2012 to be agreed by the end of next year, according to a draft summit statement seen Friday.

"Leaders welcomed the substantial progress made at the climate change conference in Bali, Indonesia, in December 2007," said the draft "chair's statement" from the biannual Asia-Europe Meeting, which opened Friday.

"They confirmed their commitment to securing an ambitious, effective and comprehensive agreed outcome now, up to and beyond 2012, by the end of 2009 on the basis of the Bali road map," said the draft, which is scheduled to be issued on Saturday at the close of the summit.

Beijing - The first Asia-Europe Meeting was held in 1996 in Bangkok as informal talks among 16 European Union members and 10 Asian nations.

The seventh summit this year has grown to include 45 delegations: the European Union's 27 members, 16 Asian states as well as the European Commission and the secretariat of the 10-nation Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The participants represent more than half the world: 58 per cent of its population, 60 per cent of its trade and 50 per cent of its economic performance.

Frankfurt - Global shares are ending the week on a grim note, with a new wave of selling hitting European stocks Friday as concerns grew about the outlook for corporate profits.

Picking up on steep falls on Asian markets and volatile trading on Wall Street, Europe's blue-chip Stoxx 50 plunged more than 6 per cent in early trading Friday with a steady stream of weak third-quarter earnings reports fuelling worries about a looming recession.

Frankfurt - The euro hit a three-year low Friday of below 1.