European Union foreign ministers will hold emergency talks Friday to discuss the bloc's response to the Asian tsunami, officials said Tuesday. They said the foreign ministers would join a previously called meeting of development and health ministers in Brussels. Ministers will prepare for a U.N. donors' conference planned for Jan. 11 in Geneva. They will also hear from an EU team headed by European aid commissioner Louis Michel and Luxembourg's aid minister Jean-Louis Schiltz that is touring the stricken region to assess aid needs. EU spokesman Gregor Kreuzhuber said the bloc's head office and its 25 national governments had pledged at least ¤436 million (US$589 million) in aid for the affected countries and the figure was continuing to rise. Luxembourg's government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, said Friday's meeting will assess the emergency relief effort and consider longer-term action to help reconstruction.
