Tallinn  - The presidents of the three Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania met near the Estonian capital, Tallinn, Tuesday to discuss relations with Russia among other topics.

In the picturesque, snowbound surroundings of Sausti Manor, President Valdis Zatlers of Latvia and Valdas Adamkus of Lithuania were hosted by their Estonian counterpart, Toomas Hendrik Ilves.

After the meeting the three presidents told journalists that their countries should pursue pragmatic relations with Russia via their memberships of the European Union and NATO.

Brussels - The European Union and Syria on Tuesday moved closer to signing an Association Agreement, which will eventually grant the Middle Eastern country access to the bloc's neighbourhood funds.

At a meeting in Brussels, officials from the European Commission and Syria said they had agreed on a series of technical updates to the agreement, which was initialled in
2004 but subsequently frozen as a result of the 2005 assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafik Hariri.

Brussels - The European Commission is to allow member states to reduce their value added tax (VAT) rates to boost consumption during the recession, officials in Brussels said Tuesday.

The European Union's executive arm will also propose increasing investments in infrastructure and in key sectors such as cars, construction and green technologies as part of its economic stimulus package, due to be unveiled on Wednesday.

London, Nov. 25 : The Palais des Nations is the U. N.''s European headquarters, and is now in need of a major facelift.

But hold your breath, according to Director General Sergei Ordzhonikidze, who heads the U. N. Office at Geneva, it will cost a billion dollars to rebuild the palace that is flanked by the Swiss Alps to the west and Lake Geneva to the east, besides the pristine, 111-acre Ariana Park that surrounds it.

Brussels - The European Union's executive on Tuesday gave the green light to a Latvian state bail-out of the country's largest locally-based bank, Parex Banka, saying that it was "necessary to avoid a serious disturbance in the Latvian economy."

The 200-million-lats (350-million-dollar) bail-out is "limited in time and scope to the minimum necessary to restore the financing, require an adequate fee level and provide safeguards to minimize distortions of competition," a press release from the European Commission said.

Riga  - The Latvian government might have thought its announcement on November 20 that it was in talks with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) to support its economy would provide confidence to the population of the small Baltic republic and investors alike.

Instead, rumour and counter-rumour have been sweeping Latvians and policy-makers along at an increasing pace.

In an attempt to defuse the situation, the finance ministry appears happy to use words it wouldn't even utter until recently - words like "devaluation" and "bankruptcy".