Paris - Many flights were cancelled Saturday at Charles de Gaulle international airport in Paris as pilots went on strike.

Carrier Air France said that a third of long-haul flights and half of all other flights would have to be cancelled.

The pilots' union was due to meet Saturday to discuss whether to continue the strike, which was due to end Monday at midnight.

The pilots are protesting a change to working regulations that would allow them to choose to retire at 65 instead of the current 60, which they see as a first step to extending their working lives.

Nice, France - The United States and Russia should both refrain from siting any new weapons systems in Europe before a major summit of European and North American powers in June or July 2009, the French and Russian presidents said on Friday.

The European Union is "concerned" by Russian threats to site missiles in its Baltic exclave of Kaliningrad, and "there should be no deployment ... until we have discussed the new geo-political terms for pan-European security," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said after talks with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.

Nice, France - French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched an impassioned defence Friday of his efforts to end August's Russian-Georgian war, accusing his critics of not having ideas and attacking the role of Georgia's allies, including the United States.

"A number of national leaders said that I shouldn't go to Russia for peace talks or hold a summit with Russia ... What was the best, to have a dialogue or to do nothing? I don't regret taking either decision," a combative Sarkozy said after talks in the French resort of Nice with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.

Nice, France - Russia supports the idea of holding a second summit of the world's greatest powers to debate the reform of the global financial system after a meeting in Washington scheduled for the weekend, the country's president said Friday.

Nice, France - The European Union and Russia are set to re-launch on December 2 talks on a strategic treaty which EU leaders froze in protest at Russia's August invasion of Georgia, officials said Friday.

The two sides' top negotiators are due to hold a fresh round of talks on December 2 in Brussels, diplomatic sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on the fringes of an EU-Russia summit in the French resort town of Nice.

Nice, France - French President Nicolas Sarkozy launched an impassioned defence Friday of his efforts to end August's Russian-Georgian war, accusing his critics of not having ideas and attacking the role of Georgia's allies, including the United States.

"If you consider the strategy of some of the 'friends of Georgia' (a group including the Baltic states, Poland, and Ukraine) and the strategy of the EU, the EU one is far the better," Sarkozy said after talks with his Russian counterpart, Dmitry Medvedev.