Talks on monetary union have never been so intense as in the last six months

Talks on monetary union have never been so intense as in the last six months. Concrete proposals for a super- currency have been put forward. They differ in details, but all governments take them seriously. The political will behind the project is immense.The difference is that governments appreciate better the economic and political obstacles to monetary union. Hence, EU finance ministers felt obliged in Luxembourg last week to bury the Commission's hope that the project could be started in 1997, the first target date set in the Maastricht treaty. The ministers said too few countries will meet the Maastricht conditions on such things as government debts and interest rates.This was a slap in the face for the Commission, but it does not imply that the new Gaullist leaders of France or the German government and the Bundesbank oppose starting the single currency in 1999, the second date mentioned in Maastricht.

But that's not possible here because of the political situation.". not other television people but maybe banks."Since he entered politics in January 1994, Mr Berlusconi has come under heavy criticism over his dominant position in the Italian media, with his television channels accounting for almost 50 per cent of the national audience share.Mr Berlusconi recently won a referendum over TV ownership, but Murdoch stressed that if Berlusconi wanted to carry on in politics he should have nothing to do with television "I would be happy to have Mr Berlusconi as an equal partner. Italian media reports have estimated that Mr Murdoch has offered 4.5 trillion lire (pounds 1.75bn) for 100 per cent of Mediaset, while Berlusconi is reported to be demanding 6.5 trillion lire (pounds 2.5bn).Mr Murdoch said there was still the possibility that News Corporation might buy all of the company "But in that case we would like to find Italian partners ... "I would not enter into a group with a lot of people," Mr Murdoch said. "I am only interested if we are talking about a significant commitment with a considerable investment and involving a majority stake."However, this would not exclude Mr Berlusconi or his family retaining a stake in the Mediaset company, which controls the three television stations and Italy's largest advertising agency, Publitalia.On the question of price, the Italian businessman, who built up his Fininvest company from nothing, said the two parties had reached an agreement over a possible valuation, but both men declined to name any figures. "We are closer to having an agreement," Mr Murdoch said in a joint news conference after several hours of talks at the former Italian prime minister's luxury villa north of Milan. Asked when that might be he said: "Let's say a matter of weeks .. no, within several days. But there's no deadline as such."Mr Berlusconi and Mr Murdoch, whose News Corporation has media interests over several continents, have been in negotiations over the Italian's commercial television network for weeks.Berlusconi said other buyers were interested in taking stakes in his company, including Saudi Prince al-Walid bin Talal, but Murdoch said he was not looking to join any large consortia.

France has been seeking a total of $17.3bn in new aid over the next five years.But Britain argues that such funding should be primarily a bilateral responsibility and should not come out of a European pot.A larger debate is also dividing the heads of government over whether priority should be given to supporting the EU's Mediterranean neighbours or to countries in Eastern Europe.. Arcore, Italy - The media magnates Rupert Murdoch and Silvio Berlusconi moved closer to an agreement on the sale of the Italian billionaire's television interests yesterday after hours of negotiations. While they struck no final deal over the future of the three television channels of Berlusconi's Fininvest media empire, the Australian-born Mr Murdoch said two or three solutions had surfaced. Mr Chirac is determined that fighting crime should be a theme of the summit and wants firm decisions on Europol.However, allowing the agency to be subject to the European Court rulings is fiercely resisted in London as a new step towards federalism.Britain is also currently at loggerheads with other EU leaders over whether to commit new funds in aid to African, Caribbean and Pacific countries.

Since he faces a leadership challenge, the principle of ''solidarity'' between EU leaders probably will be applied, allowing him to escape without any embarrassing reversals. Apart from the fraught question of monetary union, a row over new powers for the European Court of Justice is one of the biggest fears for Mr Major at Cannes.Other countries, particularly Germany, are insisting that the European Court should be able to oversee the working of Europol, the proposed new police information agency. In the midst of a Eurosceptic onslaught at home, the Prime Minister will be unable to enter whole-heartedly into discussion of the dominant issues: monetary union and institutional reform.Even progress on immediate practical questions such as the setting up of a police data agency, will be hard to achieve, given Mr Major's situation.Douglas Hurd, who has announced his resignation, is certain to receive accolades in Cannes, but a Foreign Secretary on his way out cannot be expected to play a part in central decisions.Britain will be hoping that the single currency debate will be played down at Cannes following acceptance by member states that the changeover cannot now begin until 1999.Mr Major is unlikely to be put under pressure to compromise, officials say. Jacques Chirac, the French President and host, was fighting last night to ensure that his showpiece summit is not paralysed, insisting that important new programmes can be agreed on such issues as unemployment, crime and trans-European transport. Jacques Santer, President of the European Commission, who wants Cannes to set an ideological agenda for next year's Inter-Governmental Conference (IGC) on Europe, said heads of government should prove that the Union "is moving forward without hesitation or weakness."However, Cannes is likely to be seen as a summit where leaders had much to say and little to do. Hole was serving in the Devon and Dorset Regiment in the central Bosnian town of Vitez.. The European summit, which opens here today, will be overshadowed by the British political crisis and by deep-rooted uncertainty about how Europe should move ahead on the road to reform. A fierce exchange of fire, including five Serb rockets, erupted early yesterday morning around the western suburbs of Stup, Nedarici and Rajlovac, but the UN could not assess which side had fired first or what was the outcome.n London (Reuter) - A British soldier with the UN peace-keeping troops in Bosnia died after shooting himself, but the Ministry of Defence, which identified the soldier as Private Darren Hole of Bournemouth, could not say whether he had committed suicide."He shot himself There will be an inquiry," an MoD spokeswoman said.

Both instances involved French soldiers at Hotonj, north of Sarajevo, who destroyed a Bosnian Serb tank on one occasion.Yesterday's smoke bomb was the first UN use of artillery fire in Bosnia. It did no damage but proved the UN could hit the spot and was accompanied by a phone call to the local Bosnian Serb barracks warning that unless the firing stopped, the next UN round would be a regular mortar bomb.UN positions have been shot at 17 times in the past week, 15 times by the Serbs, but peace-keepers have returned fire only twice. His body lay unidentified in the morgue an hour later and his bike lay abandoned in the street where it fell, too exposed to risk retrieving.The French smoke bomb, fired from a 120mm mortar used yesterday for the first time since the UN deployed on top of Igman, landed near the offending gun. The Serbs are at present denying clearance for UN convoys along roads they hold.Yesterday several mortar rounds and at least one rocket landed close to the UN headquarters in western Sarajevo, wounding five or six people, a spokesman said.A young boy was shot dead by sniper fire on Sarajevo's main street in the afternoon as he rode his bicycle past French peacekeepers who were on an anti-sniping patrol The boy carried no papers. "There were shots that passed between the armoured cars in our convoy." The perilous route, normally travelled only by Bosnians, journalists, some aid agencies and others denied Serb permission to enter Sarajevo, is now in use by the UN to bring in troops and supplies.