At least 200,000 people marched through Madrid on Saturday, demanding the government call off planned peace talks with the Basque separatist group Eta.

The march was called by Spain's right-wing opposition and associations of victims of attacks by armed groups.

Participants carried banners reading: "Negotiations, not in my name".

Eta declared a permanent ceasefire on 22 March, and in May Spain's Socialist prime minister announced his intention to open direct talks with the group.

Some victims' associations say the government is dishonouring the memory of those killed by Eta over four decades - though others have distanced themselves from the demonstration organisers.

JERUSALEM (Reuters) - Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert begins on Sunday his first visit to Britain and France, where he will likely seek a strong European stand against the Hamas-led Palestinian government and Iran's nuclear programme.

In talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair and French President Jacques Chirac, Olmert will also lobby for his West Bank redeployment plan, which has won U.S. praise but faces political hurdles at home and the misgivings of moderate Arabs.

As top European Union powers, Britain and France have played supporting roles in navigating a beleaguered "road map" to Israeli-Palestinian peace. Along with Germany, they have also led Western bids to curb Iran's atomic ambitions through talks.

Yet many Israelis see the Europeans as less reliable Middle East powerbrokers than their U.S. ally, a view bolstered by reports of anti-Semitism among Europe's growing Muslim minority.

"It (European Union) is the weak link, but Olmert has the advantage of coming with a plan under which he is willing to give up territory," an Israeli official said, referring to a proposal to remove dozens of Jewish settlements in the occupied West Bank while annexing others in the absence of peace talks.

Britain will face furious accusations of "betrayal" from its European neighbours today as the Foreign Secretary, Margaret Beckett, tries to water down moves the UK once championed to open EU law-making to public scrutiny.

At a meeting of EU foreign ministers Ms Beckett will argue that plans to allow television cameras into almost all discussions on legislation go too far, too fast. She will also suggest that such proposals will force negotiation into informal and private discussions in the corridors away from the glare of the cameras.

The new minister's stance has provoked anger because achieving greater openness was a theme of the UK's six-month presidency of the EU which ended in December. When Tony Blair agreed to the European constitution he backed the principle of transparency which was written into the text. Then, when the constitution was rejected in referendums in France and Holland, the UK argued that greater openness was one of the measures that would help restore confidence in the EU.
One EU diplomat said there was "surprise" that reservations were coming from "the country which was promoting the topic during its presidency".

As Ankara begins entry negotiations, attempts are being made to sabotage its chances

When it comes to negotiating the treacherous faultlines of Turkey's fast road to modernity, chewing gum and garlic can make a dangerous cocktail. As Veysel Dalci, a leader of the governing party of pragmatic Islamists in Ordu on the Black Sea, stepped up to place a wreath at a monument to Ataturk - Father of the Turks - on Sovereignty Day, he was seen chewing gum.

The Turkish prosecution service went into action and Mr Dalci was charged with the crime of insulting Mustafa Kemal, better known as Ataturk, a national hero. Mr Dalci, who was held for 48 hours before being bailed, is awaiting trial and could face three years in prison.

A victim of the power struggle between defenders of the secularist state and the ruling AKP party of religious conservatives, Mr Dalci initially blamed his Sovereignty Day ordeal on an excess of grilled garlic the night before. He needed the gum to clear his breath. But then he denied chewing gum at all.

An AKP deputy leader, Dengir Mir Mehmet Firat, said: "How can you arrest someone for this? Let's assume he was chewing. It's not a crime, though it might be bad behaviour."

Italian industrialists criticised the centre-left government of Romano Prodi, prime minister, at the weekend for proposing that a radical plan to cut labour costs should not cover all businesses.

"The cut should be for everybody," Luca Cordero di Montezemolo, leader of Confindustria, Italy's employers' association, told the Financial Times.

"Selection is something that is done by the market. We should not be afraid of the market. If some companies don't use the cut in labour costs in the proper way, they will close," he said.

Mr Prodi's proposal to cut labour costs by 5 percentage points, or €10bn ($13bn, £7bn), in his first year in office was the centrepiece of the economic programme that he put to voters before his general election victory.

Mr Prodi said the plan would improve the competitiveness of Italian companies, many of which are struggling on world markets because of high taxes, low productivity growth and insufficient spending on research and development.

Ferenc Gyurcsany, Hungary's prime minister, has vowed to slash the country's budget deficit by raising taxes and fighting waste in the public sector.

Corporate tax will be raised from 16 per cent to 20 per cent. Income tax, value added tax and social security contributions for employers and employees will also rise.

The austerity package is a 2½-year plan to tackle a budget deficit forecast to reach 9.5 per cent of gross domestic product this year, overshooting the 4.7 per cent target.

Mr Gyurcsany, who launched the plan on Saturday, told the Financial Times that tax increases were a short-term measure that would be followed by more important efforts to rein in public spending that had spun out of control, partly as a result of election spending promises.

"The steps for this year are what I would call first aid," he said. "We are not just cutting expenses but w