President Obama's delay in authorising a US troop surge in Afghanistan had contributed to falling public support in Britain for the mission, Bob Ainsworth said yesterday. The Defence Secretary said that as well as the "period of hiatus" in Washington, the deaths of British troops and the disputed Afghan elections had also played a part.

The United States will propose an emissions reduction target at U.N. climate change talks in Copenhagen in December with an eye toward winning support from U.S. lawmakers who must agree to put it into law. A senior Obama administration official told reporters on Monday that Washington would make clear in the "next several days" what it planned to put on the table at the talks, and a greenhouse gas emissions goal -- in line with proposals in the U.S. Congress -- would be included.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is set to formally announce the postponement of the presidential and parliamentary elections that he called for January 24, a PA official in Ramallah said on Sunday. Abbas decided to cancel the vote following a recommendation from the Palestinian Central Elections Committee, whose members told him that they would not be able to prepare for the elections in the Gaza Strip because of Hamas's decision to ban the vote there.

Herman Van Rompuy, Belgium's reluctant prime minister, is an unexpected first President of the European Union. Balding, short in stature, slight of build and self-effacing, the 62-year Flemish Christian Democrat economist is no European George Washington.

Fear of youth unemployment rising above 1 million in the new year yesterday prompted Gordon Brown to use the last Queen\'s speech of the parliament to promise more money to ease the impact of the recession on the young. Some of the money will come from £2bn the Treasury has saved because the overall rate of unemployment is lower than forecast.