European Union leaders postponed hard decisions on a controversial climate change package and on a recovery plan for the bloc's struggling economy after a Thursday of tough talks in Brussels.

France, which is keen to cap its six-month stint as president of the EU with a historic deal, proposed a "final compromise" on ways of cutting greenhouse gas emissions shortly before midnight.

Its watered-down set of laws is designed to win unanimous backing amid strong resistance from Germany, Italy and many Eastern European nations.

But the final compromise toughened some aspects of the deal in a bid to woo more climate-conscious states, such as Britain and Sweden.

Brussels - European Union leaders are set to agree on a 200- billion-euro (265-billion-dollar) shot in the arm for the bloc's struggling economy, Luxembourg Prime Minister Jean-Claude Juncker said Thursday.

"I expect that we will reach an agreement on the volumes proposed by the European Commission," Juncker, who also acts as the powerful chairman of the group of countries that share the euro, told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.

Brussels - European Union leaders are heading for a deal on making a pledge to cut greenhouse-gas emissions legally binding, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi said Thursday.

But the proposed compromise would be disastrous for world efforts to stop global warming, seriously damaging the EU's own credibility, environmental group WWF said in a statement.

"We are heading towards a deal. Italy is obtaining everything it requested," Berlusconi told journalists on the fringes of the EU's year-end summit in Brussels.

Geneva  - For the 700,000 commuters who cross the borders between European Union countries and Switzerland every day, life is set to get just a little bit easier after Thursday.

When the clock strikes midnight, Switzerland will officially join the Schengen agreement, meaning passports will no longer be checked at the border crossings between the confederation and the rest of Europe.

"Schengen means" there will be "no systematic control of the borders anymore," Michaela Rickenbacker, the chief of the Swiss border police, told local radio.

However, she admitted, most systematic checks have already been removed. People will feel the difference, but only slightly. Border checks will remain in place for custom issues.

Brussels - European Union leaders on Thursday were debating a French proposal to boost massively climate-friendly technology in developing countries as part of the fight against global warming.

The proposal from the French government, which currently holds the EU's rotating presidency, held out special hope for poor island nations, which are at risk of being flooded by rising sea levels and which have not yet benefited as much as they had hoped from international sponsorship systems.