EU LEADERS yesterday rejected a new multi-billion euro pound bailout for eastern Europe, suggesting that additional aid be given to struggling nations only on a case-by-case basis.

Eastern European nations do not want a special rescue programme for their region, top European Union officials said at the end of emergency economic summit talks tonight.

Hungary’s prime minister warned of a new economic “Iron Curtain” being drawn unless leaders at today’s European Union summit acted to protect the bloc’s weakest members from drowning in the global economic crisis.

The President of the European Central Bank this afternoon warned that there was no obvious way to restore trust in financial markets.

The European Commission today threatened a “point-by-point” rethink of its relations with Russia and Ukraine unless the gas supply crisis is revolved this weekend.

THE Czech prime minister got a tongue-lashing from members of the European Parliament yesterday when he told them the Lisbon treaty was worse than the Nice treaty and would not pass in his country.

Russian and European Union officials have signed a deal regarding the deployment of EU officials to monitor Russian gas shipments through Ukraine.

Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin today insisted that a written deal on sending EU monitors to Ukraine must be signed before Russia resumes gas supplies to a freezing Europe.

Europeans left freezing and in the dark saw their hopes for an end to the Russia-Ukraine gas dispute sink after officials failed to reach a deal which would restore power to millions of homes.

There was cautious optimism last night that Russian gas will begin flowing into Europe again next week following agreement on monitors in both Russia and Ukraine.

A team of energy experts assembled by the European Commission arrived in Kiev today to begin work monitoring gas flows from Russia to the EU via Ukraine.

The European Union said today gas supplies should restart after it struck a deal with Russia on supervising the flow of gas through Ukraine.

MOSCOW has agreed to the deployment of international monitors to oversee the transit of Russian gas to EU states via Ukraine, clearing the way for the resumption of European gas supplies, the Czech EU presidency said.

IN THE two decades since the Berlin Wall collapsed, Europe has changed beyond all recognition.

The main opposition Social Democratic Party has made huge gains in regional elections in the Czech Republic, possibly threatening plans to host part of a US missile shield in the country.

The United States and the Czech Republic today signed an initial agreement to base a US missile shield in Eastern Europe.

European leaders celebrate the end of border controls along a line stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Adriatic today as many of the European Union’s newest members join the EU’s passport-free zone.

President George Bush risked fuelling tensions with Russia today, saying Moscow had "derailed" once-promising democratic reforms.

Russia is not an enemy of the United States and has nothing to fear from a proposed missile defence system designed to thwart a possible nuclear attack from Iran, US President George Bush said today.

Hundreds of protesters carried an effigy of Uncle Sam and staged a mock trial of US President George Bush in demonstrations against his visit to the Czech Republic and American plans to build a missile defence system.

Hundreds of protesters carried an effigy of Uncle Sam and staged a mock trial of US President George Bush today in demonstrations against his visit in the Czech Republic and US plans to build a missile defence system.

Czech prime minister Mirek Topolanek said his government voted to resign today after losing a vote of confidence in parliament.

Czech conservatives and the ruling Socialists are running neck-and-neck ahead of the two-day elections that start today and are likely to be the closest since the fall of communism.

A day after voting decisively to join the European Union, Czechs today began looking ahead to the benefits of integration – and the expected hardships.