Brussels - The European Union's interior ministers gathered in Brussels on Thursday to put the finishing touches on an immigration and asylum pact setting up common principles on the way member states manage the influx of non-EU nationals.

The pact, which is due to be formally adopted by EU leaders at their October 15-16 summit, seeks to improve the management of legal immigration, tighten controls on illegal immigrants and construct a common asylum policy.

Brussels  - All new cars, buses and trucks sold in the European Union will have to be fitted with daytime lights as from 2011, the European Commission said Wednesday.

The decision follows studies showing that so-called Daytime Running Lights (DRL) can help improve road safety by increasing visibility.

DRLs are automatically switched on when the engine is started. Because they consume low amounts of energy - around 30 per cent less than normal driving lights - they are also considered to be environmentally friendly.

Brussels - Europe's financial system remains "solid" and does not need a US-style plan to buy up "toxic assets" with public money, European Union officials said Wednesday.

However, there is "no doubt" that the global financial crisis is hurting Europe's real economy, with the bloc's economic and monetary affairs commissioner, Joaquin Almunia, warning that "we expect growth in both the EU and the euro area to remain relatively weak next year."

London - International aid agencies have accused the so-called Middle East Quartet - representing the US, Russia, the United Nations (EU) and the European Union (EU) - of having "lost its grip" on the Middle East peace process.

A document published on the eve of talks between Quartet members at the UN in New York calls on the grouping to take "decisive action" and to "radically revise its existing approach" in order to avoid a further deterioration of the situation.

Brussels - The European Union is to send a mission to Syria and Jordan to investigate the plight of Iraqi refugees there in the first week of November, officials from the European Commission confirmed Wednesday.

The "high-level fact-finding mission" is set to travel in the first week of November and should consist of experts from the commission, EU member states and the UN, commission spokesman Michele Cercone said.

The mission is intended to study the problems facing refugees from Iraq, with the aim of deciding whether and how the EU could help those for whom it would be too dangerous to return home.

Vienna  - The European Union said Wednesday it stood ready to start comprehensive talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, but also restated its general support for new measures should Tehran continue to defy the United Nations Security Council.

"We have to react," French Ambassador Francois-Xavier Deniau told the board of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna. France holds the rotating EU presidency.

Like other IAEA members, EU countries are concerned about lingering questions over past Iranian research that could have been related to the development of nuclear weapons.