Berlin - German Economics Minister Michael Glos has offered to resign, the newspaper Bild am Sonntag reported on Saturday.

The newspaper said the minister had informed Chancellor Angela Merkel of his intention.

Glos is a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party of Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU).

The 64-year-old Glos expressed his desire to step down in a letter to CSU leader Host Seehofer, who is also president of the southern German state of Bavaria.

Hamburg  - An arch-conservative bishop whose remarks on the Holocaust plunged the Vatican into crisis is refusing to recant, according to an interview with a German magazine released Saturday.

Bishop Richard Williamson told the news weekly Der Spiegel he wanted first to examine the historical evidence against his claims that no Jews were gassed in the Holocaust.

"And if I find such evidence then I will correct my remarks. But that will take time," the controversial member of the traditionalist St Pius X Society said.

Munich - US Vice President Joe Biden on Saturday promised greater cooperation with European allies on security issues, but only in exchange for greater European contributions to fighting global security threats.

Biden's speech before the Munich Security Conference, billed as the new US administration's first glimpse of an overarching security and defence policy, presented a laundry list of US priorities around the world, combined with a promise of greater US humility in addressing those issues.

London, Feb 7 : German Chancellor Angela Merkel has been used as the model for a Barbie doll to mark its 50th birthday celebrations.

The doll, which is based on the 54-year-old German leader, was presented at the international toy fair in Nuremberg and will go on sale for 17 pounds.

"She''s simply a good role model for girls around the world," the Telegraph quoted a spokesman for Mattel, the company that makes Barbie dolls, as saying.

Munich - The West should take Russian proposals for a new security system in Europe seriously, the European Union's top diplomat told the prestigious Munich Security Conference on Saturday.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's call for a new security treaty in Europe "deserves to be taken seriously" and Europe and the United States "should engage in this discussion," EU foreign-policy chief Javier Solana told some 350 top politicians.

Medvedev launched the call for an international treaty aimed at outlawing the use of force "from Vancouver to Vladivostok" in June.

Kathmandu - A German parliamentary delegation ended its visit to Nepal Saturday calling on the political parties to cooperate to consolidate multi-party democracy and human rights in the country.

The four-member delegation led by Wolfgang Thierse, the vice-president of the German parliament was in Nepal to observe the political process and the drafting of a new constitution.

Speaking to journalists on Saturday, the German delegation said political parties in Nepal must cooperate to ensure democratic system.