The European Union nations are preparing a bailout package for Greece that could exceed 25 billion euro ($34.4 billion), a media report has said.

Police fired tear gas and clashed with demonstrators in Athens after some 50,000 people finished a peaceful march against cutbacks intended to fix the country's debt crisis.

European finance ministers bluntly told Greece to prepare tougher spending cuts and new taxes in an attempt to snuff out a government debt crisis that has shaken the entire eurozone.

With Greece overdrawn and no one eager to foot the bill, Europe's messy debt crisis has exposed a fundamental weakness among the 16 countries that share the euro.

The European Union has expressed concern over the spate of pre-election violence in Sri Lanka and asked all political parties to contribute to the conduct of a "free, fair and unbiased elections".

For the first time ever unemployment in the European Union has reached 10 per cent of the active population, report says.

Spain took over the presidency of the European Union on Friday, with the prime minister promising to work to end the continent's economic crisis.

The European Union says poor countries have stopped their boycott of climate change negotiations at Copenhagen, and have found a solution to their dispute with rich nations.

Wealthy nations would commit to drastically reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade, and the world should strive to nearly eliminate them - or at least cut them in half - by 2050 under a draft text circulated on Friday at the UN climate talks.

European Union foreign ministers urged Israel and the Palestinians on Tuesday to make Jerusalem their shared capital, prompting a swift, angry reaction from Israel.

Europe has emerged out of recession, with GDP in the 27-nation European Union expanding by 0.3 per cent in the third quarter.

Israel on Tuesday warned the European Union against its purported plan to recognise a unilateral Palestinian declaration of statehood by dividing Jerusalem, saying it would harm efforts to renew peace negotiations.

The European Union has taken India to the World Trade Organisation, alleging that levying of duties by some Indian states on wines and spirits imported from the continent is discriminatory against its firms.

EU leaders picked little known Belgian Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as Europe's first president with a mission to give the continent a greater world profile.

European leaders were on Thursday urged not to miss a "historic occasion" as they gathered to choose a first-ever European Union president to represent the 27-nation bloc on the world stage.

Britain's press stepped up attacks Thursday over jostling for the European Union's new top jobs, predicting "unmemorable winners," and again poking fun at Belgian's EU presidency frontrunner.

Defending its debt-financed tax reduction plans, the German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government would press ahead with the move to cut income taxes by billions of euros from 2011.

The European Union on Friday said it plans to soon dispatch military instructors to train up to 2,000 Somali forces in Uganda.

The 15 European Union members which pledged to curb greenhouse gases by an overall eight per cent under the UN's Kyoto Protocol are on track to beat the target, the European Environment Agency said on Thursday.

India and the European Union on Friday signed an agreement in the civil nuclear field to give boost to collaborative research.

With an ambitious target to more than double their bilateral trade to $ 200 billion in the next four years, India and EU on Friday hoped they can resolve differences and reach a free trade agreement within a year.

Keen on substantially raising their cooperation in counter-terrorism, India and the 27-nation European Union are likely to sign an agreement on enhancing cooperation in the field when both sides meet for the summit level talks here this week.

Ahead of the India-EU Summit on Friday, the European Union on raised issues of child labour and environment again, saying these must be addressed in the free trade area negotiations between the two sides.

Czech President Vaclav Klaus on Tuesday became the European Union's final leader to sign a bitterly contested Lisbon reform treaty into law after the country's top court said it did not conflict with the constitution.

The European Union has failed to agree on concrete aid for developing nations for combating climate change, weeks before a crucial UN conference in Copenhagen aiming for a treaty to reduce global warming.