• Bomb disposal experts in East Sussex have joined the search for potentially deadly gas cylinders at a fireworks depot which was destroyed in a blaze that killed two firemen. Police and fire chiefs said it was too early to say what caused the explosion and blaze at the warehouse near Lewes on Sunday but investigators fear cylinders in the smouldering debris may still explode. A bomb disposal team is using a remote controlled vehicle to look for cylinders within a 200-metre exclusion zone.

• Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the Litvinenko affair was damaging ties with Britain, which sent detectives to Moscow as part of the investigation into the ex-KGB spy's death by poisoning. Mr Lavrov said insinuations in Britain of high-level Russian involvement in Litvinenko's death were "unacceptable", adding, "It is of course damaging our relations."

• The six major powers are in a position to agree on the text of a UN resolution to impose sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme, France's foreign minister said a day before they meet to discuss it in Paris.

• France and Germany plan to jointly urge the EU to set a new deadline for Turkey to open its ports to Cyprus or face a harsher blow to its membership bid,despite a plea from the EU's enlargement chief. The call for a review date will be the central theme at talks between French President Jacques Chirac and German Chancellor Angela Merkel today in the German town of Mettlach.

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