Essen, Germany - Slovakia, which has been hard hit by the Russian-Ukrainian gas delivery crisis has found a white knight in the form of Germany's RWE Power, which has promised Saturday to make gas deliveries.

The RWE deliveries are to begin Sunday morning with an increase of deliveries to begin on Tuesday, the company based in the western German city of Essen said.

The company has been working since Thursday to make possible a west-to-east flow of gas, something that has never been done before, reported the company.

Berlin  - A German government spokesman Saturday confirmed that Chancellor Angela Merkel will attend a summit with other world leaders in Egypt to seek a way to end the ongoing Israeli offensive in the Gaza Strip.

Other attendees to the summit set for Sunday will include the host, Egyptian President Hosny Mubarak, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

The summit will take place in Sharm el-Sheikh. Merkel is scheduled to travel on to Israel Sunday afternoon after the summit.

Berlin  - Agriculture ministers from nearly 30 countries met in Berlin on Saturday to discuss ways to reduce export subsidies for farm produce as part of efforts to safeguard world food supplies.

The discussions took place on the fringe of International Green Week, one of the world's biggest shows of agricultural products, which opened its doors on Friday.

The ministers drafted a paper which called for improved market access for developing countries and steps to reduce subsidies and other export-promotion measures that distort the market.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown issued a joint statement Saturday to the governments of Israel and Egypt supporting efforts for a lasting ceasefire in the Gaza Strip.

According to the statement, the three EU countries "declared our readiness to take a series of measures that would contribute to the end of weapons smuggling into Gaza."

Hamburg - Hoffenheim striker Vedad Ibisevic has undergone a successful operation on his injured right knee, the German league leaders said Saturday.

The Bundesliga's top scorer with 18 goals tore his cruciate ligament in a friendly game against SV Hamburg during a training camp in Spain on Wednesday.

The Bosnia striker had surgery at St Elisabeth hospital in Heidelberg and will be out for the rest of the season.

Swiss forward Eren Derdiyok has meanwhile turned down an approach. from Hoffenheim who are now in the market for a replacement striker.

Ruhpolding, Germany - Norway's Ole Einar Bjoerndalen clinched his first biathlon World Cup win of the season with victory Saturday in the men's 10-kilometre sprint in Ruhpolding, Germany.

It was an 83rd victory for record World Cup winner Bjoerndalen who had a comfortable advantage over Austrian Dominik Landertinger and overall leader Emil Hegle Svendsen of Norway.

Bjoerndalen made no shooting errors on his way to a time of 23 minutes 25.8 seconds, 33.4 seconds ahead of Landertinger (no errors) and 35.3 seconds up on Svendsen
(one error).