Britain is among countries that have done most to tackle the problem. It raised generating capacity by 13% to increase the margin by one percentage point. The margin this winter will be 22% compared with 21% last winter, according to UK figures.

Despite Britain's relatively strong position, industry experts underline the need for continued investment to replace coal fired plant that does not meet new European regulations and ageing nuclear reactors. "In this country we are looking at £20bn worth of investment in power stations this side of 2020," said David Porter, chief executive of the Association of Electricity Producers.

This week Powergen parent E.ON UK said it had applied to build two units at its coal-fired station at Kingsnorth, Kent, which the company says would represent a £1bn investment. Yesterday RWE, which owns npower, said it was bringing another 500megawatt unit at its oil-fired Fawley plant in Hampshire back into service after being mothballed for more than a decade.

"Many of the country's older power stations are coming up to retirement age," said npower managing director of generation and renewables, Kevin Akhurst. "While new forms of power generation are considered, Fawley will continue to play a vital role in balancing supply and demand."

Tokyo may consider more options for economic sanctions against the DPRK depending on its response, Kyodo News said, quoting government officials.

With the sanctions imposed, the DPRK vessels in Japan have to leave Japanese ports by the end of Saturday.

About 22 DPRK ships were in four Japanese ports by Thursday evening, according to the Transport Ministry.

Japan mainly imports shellfish, sea urchins, crabs and other seafood, as well as coal and mushroom from the DPRK, the value of which stood at 14.4 billion yen (about 121 million U.S. dollars) in 2005.

But a furious Ankara - which strongly contests the use of the term genocide - was in no mood to listen, saying that France had dealt "a heavy blow" to longstanding bilateral relations.

Turkish parliamentary speaker Bulent Arinc called the vote "shameful" and said it reflected a "hostile attitude".

The European Commission also criticised the French bill, saying it would hinder efforts to heal the wounds caused by the Armenian carnage nine decades ago.

The sharp reactions came after France's lower house of parliament, the 577-seat National Assembly, approved the bill by 106 votes to 19. It now goes to the upper house, the Senate, for another vote.

If voted into law, it would become a crime in France to deny that the killings of the Armenians were genocide. Those violating the law would face up to one year in prison and a fine of up to EUR 45,000.

Although introduced by the opposition Socialist Party, President Jacques Chirac's ruling centre-right UMP party did not use its parliamentary majority to block the bill. Some UMP parliamentarians voted in favour of it but most were simply absent for the vote.

The clash over the bill highlighted broader tensions between France and Turkey over the latter's bid to join the European Union.

While Chirac has championed Ankara's ambition, he has had to soften his support somewhat in the face of domestic opposition even within his own party.

The French government has done what it can to put distance between itself and the bill.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Jean-Baptiste Mattei said: "We are very keen on dialogue with Turkey, as well as on the strong ties of friendship and cooperation which link us to that country."

But the spat dividing them has been festering since 2001, when France adopted a law officially calling the Armenian massacres a genocide.

The new bill seeks to build on that by criminalising those who disagree, much in the same manner as a French law that outlaws revisionism concerning the Holocaust of World War II.

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their ancestors were slaughtered in orchestrated killings that can only be seen as genocide.

Turkey angrily rejects the notion that its Ottoman predecessor was responsible for such a gross violation of human rights.

It admits 300,000 Armenians died when the Ottoman Empire fell apart during World War I. But it but says at least as many Turks did too, as civil strife raged and the Armenians took up arms for independence alongside invading Russian troops.

An association representing the Armenian disapora in Europe, the Brussels-based Euro-Armenian Federation, hailed the French parliamentary vote as a "historic step forward".

Around 400,000 people of Armenian origin are estimated to live in France, the most famous being singer Charles Aznavour, born Chahnour Varinag Aznavourian to immigrant parents.

Turkey has cast the French bill as a restriction on freedom of expression.

It has threatened economic reprisals against France if the bill becomes law, warning that French firms could be excluded from public tenders and a boycott of French goods might be imposed.

The European Commission, the European Union's executive arm, was also unsettled by the draft law.

"Should this law indeed enter into force, it would prohibit the debate and the dialogue which is necessary for reconciliation on this issue," said Krisztina Nagy, the commission's spokeswoman on enlargement.

"It is very important to see that there is an opening in Turkey to conduct debate on that issue," she said, adding that the French bill, if it became law, "could have a negative affect on that debate".

If Paris fails to satisfy Brussels within two months, the commission said that it could open a case against the French government at the European Court of Justice.

In August 2005, the French government drew sharp criticism in France and abroad for drawing up a list of "strategic" sectors in which it could block hostile takeovers of a French firm by a foreign company.

The law requires special authorization for foreign takeovers in particularly sensitive sectors such as casinos, private security firms, antidotes makers, equipment for intercepting communications and some computer security systems.

It went into effect last December but has not yet been used in action.

France has made clear it prefers so-called "national champions" with big foreign interests to emerge out of big French groups in sensitive areas of the economy, rather than trans-national groups resulting from foreign takeovers.

Hostile takeover bids are often portrayed in France as an unwelcome and aggressive feature of so-called "Anglo-Saxon" capitalism.

"I think in the end there will be a document that the governments will publish today," British Prime Minister Tony Blair's spokesman told reporters from the talks at a hotel on Scotland's east coast.

"The last few hours are critical."

Negotiators from the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and pro-Irish Sinn Fein are standing their ground over two issues: the DUP's refusal to share power with Sinn Fein and Sinn Fein's reluctance to fully endorse a local police force.

As the province's two biggest parties, their buy-in is crucial if a deal is to be done before a November deadline.

SHARING POWER

Britain and Ireland have said the parties must agree on how to restore the Belfast assembly by November 24. If they cannot, London will shut it, stop members' salaries and continue running the province from Westminster, with input from Dublin.

Northern Ireland's assembly was set up under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement that largely ended 30 years of violence between majority Protestants committed to ties with Britain and a Roman Catholic minority in favor of a united Ireland.

Under the terms of the agreement, the locally-elected assembly is run by an executive in which Irish nationalists and British unionists share power.

However, a failure by Irish Republican Army guerrillas to disarm, the deep-seated mistrust that is the legacy of decades of conflict, and the rise in power of hardline parties on both sides mean the assembly has never really got off the ground.

It was suspended in 2002 amid a row over spying by the IRA, who waged a bloody campaign against British rule during which some 3,600 people were killed.

Repeated attempts since then to revive the assembly have failed but the UK and Ireland were optimistic a pledge by the IRA last year to end violence, to which the province's ceasefire watchdog says it is adhering, would provide the spur to a deal.

DUP leader Ian Paisley is adamant Sinn Fein, the political ally of the IRA, must pledge full support to the province's police force before he agrees to sit in government with it.

Sinn Fein says it will not move on the policing issue until Paisley commits to sharing power.

Negotiations in the Northern Ireland peace process often run beyond planned deadlines. Friday's talks are expected to finish around lunchtime, in part because the infamously intransigent Paisley, 80, celebrates his 50th wedding anniversary on Friday and wants to get home for the party.

His reforms have created much controversy in Venezuela and abroad. Most Venezuelans are split between those who say he has empowered the poor and stimulated economic growth, and those who say he is autocratic and has badly managed the economy.

Some foreign governments view Chavez as a threat to world oil prices and regional stability, while others welcome his bilateral trade and reciprocal aid agreements.

Chavez recently described George Bush, the US president, as "the devil" and says Bush has plans to assassinate him and invade Venezuela. He recently talked to Aljazeera about his relationship with the US, the Venezuelan army and why he gets only a few hours' sleep a night.

Aljazeera.net: You are strengthening ties with countries that are dissatisfied with Washington, countries such as Iran, Bolivia and Cuba. What is the end game of such an alliance?

Hugo Chavez: We are not against the US people, where there are children, women, intellectuals and students. We have investments in the US, we have eight refineries there, we have 14,000 gas stations. I have many friends there, I have played baseball there, I even have a nephew there.

What we are against is the imperial elite and that is very different. This is not a game. Do you think Iraq is a game, the aggression against Latin America for a century is a game, the toppling of Allende, the invasions of Grenada, Haiti, Panama, Jamaica, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, is that a game?

If that's a game, then my goodness that would be awful. This is an aggression and every day more and more people are against this hegemony and trying to save the world. Look at Lebanon, the aggression against the Palestinian people, why do they do that? Because the Israelis are supported by the elite of the US. We are against that.

Some would say in order for such an alliance to stop these events and counter the power of Washington that you refer to, regional powers such as China and Russia would need to back it. You hold talks with the leaders of these countries, are they ready to come on board for such an alliance?

You insist on something that is out of my main focus. I have never said we want to build an alliance against the US, so your question is not really focused.

If you take Moscow, Iran, Vietnam, China, Malaysia, what we are doing is getting closer through integration, through energy, oil, gas, trade and respect for international law.

We are today on a campaign around the world asking for support for Venezuela to become part of the Security Council as a non-permanent member. The US is in a terrible campaign to prevent us being elected. We are defending our interests but we are not proposing an alliance against anyone, much less the people of the United States. So your question is out of focus.

In May 2005, you called for an alliance between Latin America and the Arab world. How far has that initiative gone?

Not only me, Lula [Brazil's president] has been outspoken in calling for the coming together of Latin America and the Arab countries.

In Brasilia in May we had the first ever Arab-South American summit. It was a very important meeting.

In the past, only Venezuela had strong relations with the Arab world through Opec and through links with other non-Opec countries such as Egypt.

But now Lula is convening these meetings, he is coming to the Arab world. Not long ago in Venezuela we held a meeting between senior ministers in charge of education and social matters in both Latin America and the Arab world. We have made serious progress. It is not just an individual proposal of Hugo Chavez, it is a proposal of leaders like Muammar al-Qadhafi and the amir of Qatar. As well as Lula and Eva Morales [Bolivia's president]. And we want to get our two regions together.

You have started an ambitious programme to rebuild your military, you are buying new weapons, you are trying to raise, I think, the largest standing army in the Americas. If everything goes to plan, you will have two million reserve troops. What has prompted this military build up?

Let me tell you something. I hardly have time to sleep a few hours a day, but I don't care because I've decided to devote my life to taking my people out of poverty and misery.

To make a great effort for all Venezuelans to have access to education, health, housing, to life. When we were elected, poverty in Venezuela was over 55 per cent based on UN figures, it is now between 30 per cent and 40 per cent.

We are building a system of Bolivarian schools where children can have breakfast, lunch and dinner, gain internet access and take part in sports activities.

I devote a tiny part of my time to being commander-in-chief of the Venezuelan army. The imperialists have threatened to invade Venezuela, they have already conducted a coup d'etat four years ago. Recently they conducted manoeuvres in the Caribbean. We have even captured US soldiers taking pictures of military installations and we have expelled them.

We have much evidence, proof and documents that show there is a plan to invade Venezuela. What do you want us to do? That I forget my task of minimum defence of the country?

We had old rifles, they were 60-years old. We depended almost totally on US supplies. The F16 fighters we bought 20 years ago, they refused to give us spare parts, and they were stranded on the ground. So I have bought better planes and Kalashnikovs from Moscow. We have a vast border with Colombia, we have a huge coastal line along the Caribbean. We have to defend this country. We are not going to be aggressors.

Do you feel you are still being targeted and threatened by the US? We know that some people in the US have spoken in the past about assassinating you. Do you still feel personally targeted by the US?

Yes indeed. People have publicly called for my assassination and that is a crime. However, this person is not in jail, he is a close friend of the US president.

Venezuelan terrorists who left for the US after the 2002 coup, who killed people in Venezuela, are today living in the US. The US will not extradite them. Some of them are organising actions against myself and Venezuela.

The US is protecting terrorism. They are applying state terror. President Bush has left a measure taken by a former president that authorises the CIA, like 007, with a permit to kill whoever, whenever and however. They have a green light. President Carter banned that practice and the current president has just reinstated it. I am one of the targets, no doubt about it.

If the opposition parties do take part in the forthcoming Venezuelan presidential elections will you make a move towards presidency for life?

There is no way I can adopt such a provision. We have a constitution and it is only the people who might change the constitution in this direction or any other direction. They have the power to hold a referendum to remove the power given to me. The people can collect and gather signatures to ask for a referendum to recall a government official and that is totally democratic.

Televised electoral campaigning has begun and may influence some by the way in which both candidates and their messages are presented.

Moreover, two more electoral debates in coming days could also impact the voters, as well as the conclusions of the police investigation on the alleged purchase of reports by individuals linked to the ruling Workers Party to damage opposition politicians.

Likewise, vote intention may vary due to the behaviors and mistakes by runners or their supportive commands during the campaigning.

The African nation expects the gathering helps to review current plans and project others to reduce effects of that scourge.

South Africa registers 330,000 tuberculosis cases, from them 6,000 with the MDR variety.

The disease has been discovered in several provinces in the country, including KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Free State, with the Northern Cape and North West the latest to confirm its existence over the past few days.