British Prime Minister Tony Blair was today heading for summit talks in Berlin with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and French President Jacques Chirac - as the EU prepares to get to grips with a membership of 25.

Supermarket group Morrisons was holding talks with takeover target Safeway today as it put the finishing touches to a new £3bn (€4.2bn) bid for the chain.

Supermarket group Morrisons was today in a position to bid for Safeway after the planned takeover of its rival received regulatory clearance.

Four of the five potential bids for supermarket group Safeway were today referred to the competition watchdog for further investigation.

Troubled nuclear group British Energy was today handed a one-year extension to a £650m (€946m) emergency loan agreement with the British government in a bid to tackle its financial problems.

Labour has officially won the 2001 British General Election after the party passed the benchmark figure of 330 seats.

Tony Blair is set to sacrifice his May 3 general election as he battles to bring the foot-and-mouth outbreak under control.

A fresh spate of bad news from the tech and telecoms sectors in the US left stocks on this side of the Atlantic ending the week down nearly 60 points.

The FTSE-100 Index of leading stocks has plunged again, as telecoms and banking stocks pushed the market to its lowest level for 16 months.

Lloyds TSB and Abbey National are under pressure on the London Stock Exchange after Trade Secretary Stephen Byers referred Lloyds' proposed takeover bid to the Competition Commission.