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.

Brussels  - International talks on the summer's Georgian-Russian war are set to start in Geneva on October 15 on "expert level," the European Commission's top diplomat said Wednesday in a further twist to the ongoing debate over the talks.

After a meeting between European Union foreign ministers and their Russian counterpart in New York, EU Foreign-Affairs Commissioner Benita Ferrero-Waldner said the two sides agreed that the talks "will be a meeting, most probably on October 15, on expert level first."

Brussels  - The European Commission on Tuesday proposed a price cap of 0.11 euros (0.16 dollars) on a text message sent by European Union mobile phone customers while travelling elsewhere in the 27-member bloc.

This compares with current average EU prices of 0.29 cents per SMS. The proposed cap, which excludes VAT charges, is to come into effect on July 1, 2009, Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said.

Brussels - The European Union on Monday called on three Indian states to lower their high import duties on spirits and wine, saying they contravene World Trade Organization (WTO) rules.

India's states of Goa, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu represent some of the country's largest markets for wines and spirits.

And these states apply a variety of additional duties on such products, on top of a nation-wide 150 per cent import tariff, thus making it difficult for European producers to reach those markets.

Oslo  - The gap between supporters and opponents of Norway joining the European Union remains wide, according to a new opinion poll published Monday.

While 54.4 per cent were opposed to joining the 27-nation bloc, 36.1 per cent favoured joining the EU, the poll by research institute Sentio said.

Some 9.5 per cent of those people polled on September 2-7 were undecided, Sentio said, adding that the margin of error was 3 percentage points.

The sample was based on 904 people. Only people over 18, and therefore eligible to vote, were included in the survey, Sentio said.

Newspapers Nationen and Klassekampen commissioned the monthly poll.

Brussels - The European Commission will Tuesday propose capping the price of text messages sent by European Union customers while travelling elsewhere in the 27-member bloc, sources said Friday.

The proposal will be based on a report by the European Regulators' Group (ERG), which has recommended ex-VAT price caps of between 0.11 euros and 0.15 euros
(0.16-0.22 dollars) per short message (sms).

Sources familiar with the issue say the EU executive could call for a maximum Euro-SMS retail roaming tariff of 0.11 euros as from July 1, 2009.