Taoiseach Enda Kenny said today that the Government has put forward alternatives to increases in income tax to the Troika.

The European Commission has said it regrets embarrassing leaks from the Government’s budget plans to save €3.8bn.

The Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou is to discuss Greece's debt crisis with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkosy today.

CREDIT rating agencies are being investigated by the EU, as they are suspected of having conflicts of interest and timing their downgrading of euro area countries to suit some of their clients.

Taoiseach Enda Kenny meets EU leaders in Brussels today promising to raise Ireland's case for a cheaper bailout deal - if he gets the opportunity.

Former President of the European Parliament Pat Cox has said the stress tests being carried out on Irish banks are "the most important judgment call on numbers that has ever been made in the history of the State".

Comments by European Commissioner Olli Rehn urging the swift passing of the Budget are intended to inject a "dose of realism" into the situation, a spokesperson said today.

Ireland has made no request for an EU bailout, the European Commission confirmed today.

ANYONE who heard Amadeu Altafaj Tardio, spokesman for the EU Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, speaking on RTÉ radio yesterday morning got a glimpse of what our future might be like if we are not realistic about our public funding crisis.

The EU has developed a set of options to help Greece overcome its financial crisis, which has unsettled the euro currency and markets globally, officials said today.

Greece’s finance minister said a detailed rescue plan from other eurozone nations would be the best way to soothe market fears that Greece could default on debt payments.

The international community appealed to Burma’s military leaders today not to crack down on the tens of thousands of anti-government demonstrators taking to its streets.

Promises of aid poured in from Greece and abroad as firefighters managed to douse most of the massive fires that ravaged the Greek countryside for a week and killed 64 people.

Helicopter gunships attacked suspected al-Qaida fighters in southern Somalia a today – a day after US forces launched airstrikes in the eastern African nation.

The top UN official in Sudan, who accused the army of mobilising Arab militias, has been ordered to leave the country within three days.

The European Union today said it planned to provide further emergency aid beyond the €3.6m it had already committed for the victims of the huge earthquake that struck southern Asia over the weekend.