Luxembourg - Top European Union diplomats on Monday dismissed as "nonsense" a claim by Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that the EU is planning to build a sphere of influence in the former Soviet Union, just 24 hours before a meeting with him. On March 21, Lavrov said that the EU was trying to build a "sphere of influence" in Eastern Europe by setting up a so-called "Eastern Partnership" with Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine.

Tel Aviv - The European Union "underestimates the Iranian threat," Czech Prime Minister Mirek Topolanek said in remarks quoted Sunday. In an interview with the Ha'aretz daily as he wrapped up a visit to Israel and the Palestinian Territories, Topolanek, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, added however that he believed that "at this very moment, there is no imminent threat of a war between Israel and Iran."

Israel regards Iran as its biggest existential threat, given Tehran's nuclear programme, and President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's repeated statements that the Jewish state should be wiped off the map.

Prague - The Czech Republic's presidency of the European Union said Thursday it has cancelled Friday's EU accession meeting with Croatia over the Balkan country's unresolved border row with neighbouring EU member Slovenia.

The Brussels-based conference, postponed for the second time this year, would take place "subject to positive development" in the bilateral dispute, which has stalled Croatia's EU entry talks with the 27-member bloc.

Brussels - Montenegro moved a small step closer to becoming a candidate for European Union membership on Thursday as the bloc's member states agreed to send its application for official scrutiny.

Montenegro applied for official candidate status on December 15, but EU member states spent the next four months at loggerheads as they debated whether the small Balkan state - which broke away from union with Serbia in 2006 - should be granted it.

Tehran - Iran and the European Union have coordinated in a telephone call the next round of nuclear talks, the ISNA news agency reported Thursday.

Iran's chief nuclear negotiator Saeid Jalili and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana had a telephone conversation following Iran's announcement it was ready to resume nuclear talks with world powers on Wednesday.

Solana is representing the so-called 5+1 group which includes the five permanent UN Security Council member states - the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France - plus Germany.

Tel Aviv - The European Union will freeze a planned upgrade of relations with Israel, an Israeli newspaper reported Thursday, quoting an internal Israeli Foreign Ministry paper.

Ha'aretz also cited a Swedish diplomat, who spoke ahead of Stockholm's assumption of the bloc's rotating presidency in July.