BBC News with Iain Purdon.
European Union finance ministers have accepted the need for sanctions against EU countries which
run up
too much debt.
At a meeting in Brussels on how to
tackle
the current financial crisis caused by large state debts and falling confidence in the euro, the ministers agreed to a German call for budget deficits to be brought under control.
From Brussels, here is Ben Shore.
Europe's finance ministers have finally indicated how they will try to avoid the debt crisis that Greece has dragged much of the continent into.
Amongst
other measures, ministers will create a crisis mechanism designed to deal with another EU country that finds itself unable to pay its debts. Stronger economic governance will also ensure countries are honest about their budget numbers. In
present
ing the results of his first task force meeting, the President of the European Council Herman Van Rompuy emphasized that although the process had only just begun, there was a strong political will to improve the management of the European economy.
A car bomb in Iraq has killed at least 20 people at a market in a town north of Baghdad. And police said more than 50 people were wounded in the attack. Jim Muir reports from Baghdad.
The bomb went off in the early evening in the mainly Shia town of Khalis, about 80 kilometres north of Baghdad. The car containing the explosives had been parked in front of a café in a busy street market. It was detonated at the time when the area was sure to be crowded with people