Brussels - If European Union foreign ministers approve a ceasefire observation mission to Georgia as expected on Monday, they will be stepping into a diplomatic minefield.

Officials in Brussels say that if the bloc does not mandate its observers to cover the whole territory of Georgia, including, crucially, the rebel territories of South Ossetia and Abkhazia, it will appear to be accepting their independence before international peace talks have even begun.

But if the mandate does cover the breakaway regions, the EU will risk an outright rejection of its peace initiative from Russia - something which would cause it a massive loss of face.

Brussels- The European Union on Friday said that it was "deeply concerned" by the execution in Japan of three death-row inmates and asked Tokyo to bring in a moratorium on further hangings.

"The European Union is deeply concerned at the Japanese authorities' announcement that three people under sentence of death - Mr Yoshiyuki Mantani, aged 68, Mr Mineteru Yamamoto, aged 68, Mr Isamu Hirano, aged 61 - have been hanged," a statement on behalf of the EU from the French government said.

Nice, France - The mandate of Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the group of countries that share the euro was extended by two years, European Union diplomats said Friday.

The decision was taken by eurozone finance ministers at an informal meeting in Nice.

Juncker, who is 53, first assumed the influential position in 2005.

The renewal of his mandate comes at a delicate time for the European economy, which is facing a slowdown and, possibly, a recession.

Brussels - The European Union is set to call for crisis talks with leaders of August's coup in Mauritania as a last chance to avert sanctions, diplomats in Brussels said on Thursday.

At a meeting on Monday, EU foreign ministers are set to invoke Article 96 of the Cotonou Agreement between the EU and African, Pacific and Caribbean (APC) states, calling for emergency talks on the coup, EU sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

"That means we try to find a solution. If there's no solution, we cut off development aid," a Brussels diplomat said.

London, Sep 11 : EU governments and policy-makers are eroding civil liberties and privacy at a "breathtaking" rate in the name of security policy, a damning report has claimed.

Civil liberties watchdog Statewatch slammed the EU''s post-9/11 security strategy as a "frightening" grab for every aspect of individual information.

Brussels - The European Union's finance ministers are to hold informal talks in the sunny French Riviera on Friday and Saturday.

But given the dark clouds hovering over their economies, they are set for a stormy gathering in Nice.

In one corner of the meeting room will sit the "goodies": those ministers who have either managed to contain the impact of the latest global economic slowdown, or whose governments were thrifty enough during the good times to be able to spend their way out of the present crisis.