Paris - French energy giant Electricite de France (EDF) is to purchase British Energy Group after both boards agreed on a price, EDF said Wednesday in a statement.

According to the agreed deal, EDF will pay 12.5 billion pounds (15.6 billion euros, or 22.9 billion dollars) for the group, which owns eight of Britain's 10 nuclear power reactors.

The offer, equal to 774 pence per share of British Energy, represents a premium of more than 35 per cent over its closing middle price on March 14, when talks began between the two companies, and of nearly 7 per cent over Tuesday's closing middle price.

Madrid - French police Wednesday detained at least four members of Batasuna, regarded as the political wing of the militant Basque separatist group ETA, Spanish media reported.

The arrests were made in several locations in southern France. The detainees included Batasuna spokesman Xabi Larralde. Police were searching the Batasuna headquarters in Bayonne.

Batasuna was outlawed in Spain in 2003. It is, however, legal in France, where it is registered as an association, according to Spanish media.

The detentions followed those of two suspected ETA members in central France on Tuesday.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh left on Tuesday for a 10-day visit to the United States and France. After a procedural halt at Frankfurt, he is scheduled to leave for New York on Tuesday for the 63rd session of the United National General Assembly (UNGA). 

This will be his second address to the UN General Assembly, on Friday. He missed out the UNGA in 2006 and 2007. 

New York - French President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Tuesday a quicker pace in reforming the UN Security Council and the world's group of eight leading industrialized nations (G-8) in order to meet the demands of emerging countries.

Sarkozy said the world is still governed by 20th-century institutions in a 21st century world.

"Let today's major powers and the powers of tomorrow unite to shoulder together the responsibilities their influence gives them in world affairs," Sarkozy said in an address to the UN General Assembly.

Paris - Other industrial nations besides the United States should begin drawing up plans to shore up their financial sectors, the head of the International Monetary Fund, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said in an article published Tuesday in the French daily Le Monde.

Madrid - Two suspected members of the militant Basque separatist group ETA were detained Tuesday in central France, media reports quoted Spanish police sources as saying.

The man and woman were captured as they were about to steal a car, the sources said, while other reports said they were arrested in a tent as they camped in a forested area west of Lyon.

The couple, armed and carrying false identity documents and tools for stealing cars, did not resist arrest. Police seized two stolen cars, reports said.

The woman was believed to be Maria Lizarraga Merino, a former member of the pro-ETA youth organization Segi. The man's identity was not immediately known.

The two are believed to be linked with the logistical branch of ETA.