The treaty creates an EU president and a vastly more powerful foreign policy chief for the Union's 27 nations. At the same time the document scraps veto powers in many policy areas. It is a replacement for the EU constitution abandoned following French and Dutch opposition. EU leaders insist the two texts are in no way equivalent.

But the Lisbon treaty incorporates some of the draft constitution's key reforms, and several governments face domestic pressure over the document. In a speech before the signing, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso called on European leaders to use the treaty to make freedom, prosperity and solidarity an everyday reality for all European citizens. "From this old continent, a new Europe is born," he said.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has chosen not to attend the ceremony, citing a prior engagement in the British parliament, but Foreign Secretary David Miliband is at the signing. Mr Brown will sign the treaty separately, later on Thursday. The UK's opposition Conservatives accused Mr Brown of "not having the guts" to sign the treaty, which is politically controversial in Britain, in public.

If just one of the EU's 27 member states fails to ratify the treaty, it cannot come into force.

Christmas in Britain appears to have become a cultural battleground as legislators decry the rise of anti-Christian attitudes. The government had played down the importance of Christmas for fear of offending minorities in recent years, he said, adding that he had never met a non-Christian who objected to celebrating Christmas.

"Britain's Christian traditions are both rich and deep and are enjoyed today by people from all faiths and none," he said. "Furthermore, this Christian tradition has held Britain's communities together for many hundreds of years and through the very many challenges of British history." Pritchard said that some charities have banned Christmas messages and Nativity scenes from their shop windows, while some government departments are prohibited from using the word 'Christmas' in all official celebrations.

In addition, departments like the Foreign Office spend tens of thousands of pounds on celebrating Muslim and Hindu festivals but very little on Christmas. Pritchard called on the government to ensure that laws against religious discrimination would apply equally to Christians. In the most recent census in 2001, around seven out of ten Britons identified themselves as Christians.

The move raised the stakes as delegates from nearly 190 nations entered final-hour talks on Bali aimed at launching negotiations for a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.

The United States, Japan and several other governments refuse to accept language in a draft document suggesting that industrialized nations consider cutting emissions by 25 percent to 40 percent by 2020, saying specific targets would limit the scope of future talks.

The European Union and others say the figures reflect the measures scientists say are needed to rein in global warming and head off predictions of rising sea levels, worsening floods and droughts, and the extinction of plant and animal species.

"No result in Bali means no Major Economies Meeting," said Sigmar Gabriel, top EU environment official from Germany, referring to a series of separate climate talks initiated by President Bush in September. "This is the clear position of the EU. I do not know what we should talk about if there is no target."

Those found engaging in superstitious activities could be fined $200 (£98). Belief in the occult is widespread in many former Soviet societies. The Tajik authorities say those claiming occult powers are charlatans. A draft text of the new law says: "Those indulging in sorcery and fortune-telling shall be fined between 30 and 40 times the minimum monthly wage."

In one province alone, officials estimated that up to 200,000 people would be evacuated to gymnasiums, churches and schools by Friday when Tropical Storm Mitag was forecast to make landfall. And in Vietnam, the government said Tropical Storm Hagibis was expected to hit the country's southern region Saturday.

Mitag could became a "super typhoon" with winds of more than 138 mph by the time it hits land in the Philippines, chief government forecaster Nathaniel Cruz said. "It's still far, and that means we still have time to conduct preparedness," Cruz said. "With two days in the open sea, it has a big potential to become a very strong typhoon."

He also contributed to the debate over an issue that is exercising presidential candidates of both major parties by saying he believed that "basic health care for all" was essential to maintain family life and cause it to prosper. The Vatican released the pope's New Year's message three weeks early to maximize its impact upon the Bali conference on climate change. "We need to care for the environment: It has been entrusted to men and women to be protected and cultivated with responsible freedom, with the good of all as a constant guiding criterion," the pope wrote.

The pope made his plea for environmental fair play in the wider context of a single world family based upon millions of individual families, which were the building blocks of a just and humane society. "Respecting the environment means not selfishly considering nature to be at the complete disposal of our own interests, for future generations also have the right to reap its benefits. The human community cannot do without the service provided by the family. Where can young people gradually learn to savor the genuine 'taste' of peace better than in the original 'nest' which nature prepares for them," he wrote.

In a passage that is sure to discomfit those presidential candidates who preach family values but have been divorced, the pope spelled out that if the institution of the family is undermined, the peace of the world, no less, was put at risk. He went out of his way to stress that the only marriage he recognized was one between a man and a woman.

"Whoever, even unknowingly, circumvents the institution of the family undermines peace in the entire community, national and international, since he weakens what is in effect the primary agency of peace. This point merits special reflection: Everything that serves to weaken the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman constitutes an objective obstacle on the road to peace," he wrote.

The Ashoura missile has a range of 2,000 kilometers and is capable of reaching Israel, US Army bases in the Middle East and eastern European cities, including Moscow, said the TV channel. According to the report, the new missile is an improvement on the existing Shihab-3 missile. The Ashoura uses solid fuel instead of the Shihab's liquid fuel, giving it a significantly faster launch sequence which is harder to detect.

The Shihab-3, which means "shooting star" in Farsi, has a range of at least 1,300 kilometers. In 2005, Iranian officials said they had improved the range of the Shihab-3 to 2,000 kilometers, a range equal to that of the new missile reported Wednesday. Experts also believe Iran is developing the Shihab-4 missile, thought to have a range between 2,000 and 3,000 kilometers that would enable it to hit much of Europe.

It is hoped that the loans - £22.7billion of which will go to the UK - will help make lending between banks easier, avoiding any repeat of the Northern Rock crisis. The Rock ran into trouble because the current economic climate has encouraged banks to hoard their cash, rather than lend it to each other.

Northern Rock could therefore not borrow the money it needed from other banks, and was forced to go to the Bank of England as a "lender of last resort" at punitive rates. The central banks' decision is designed to stop other lenders getting into the same situation - and to avoid panic among both consumers and the City.

A Bank of England spokesman said: "This co-ordinated set of actions is a response to stresses in the inter-bank markets, which have increased in recent weeks, reflecting sentiment about the global financial sector. The actions demonstrate that central banks are working together to try to forestall any prospective sharp tightening in credit conditions."

They waved placards and banners, stamped, booed and chanted "referendum". Opponents called them "hooligans" who shamed Britain. The 50-article charter of fundamental rights will be attached to the EU's new Reform Treaty, to be signed in Portugal today. The protesters were demanding a public vote on the treaty. The ceremony marked the signing of the charter by the EU's three institutions, the Parliament, Commission and the European Council.

Wearing black t-shirts and holding placards demanding referendums on the treaty, the lawmakers from countries - including Britain, France, Poland and Italy - shouted down Portuguese Prime Minister Jose Socrates, whose country currently holds the European Union's rotating presidency, as he delivered his speech. "No matter how loud you heckle and yell, today is a day of fundamental importance for Europe," a defiant-looking Socrates told the assembly.

A police helicopter flew overhead as thousands of people ? some estimates put the number at 80,000 ? marched through central Athens in two separate demonstrations. In Thessaloniki, 30,000 people rallied, police said. Clashes broke out in one central Athens square, with riot police firing tear gas and charging a group of about 300-400 youths minutes after a car parked nearby was smashed and set on fire. No injuries were immediately reported.

The strike shut down hospitals, banks, schools, courts and all public services. Archaeological sites, including the Acropolis, were closed. Some private-run banks were open but public transport, including boats connecting mainland Greece with the islands, ground to a halt.

The leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics suggested that fears over man-made emissions melting the ice caps and causing unprecedented disasters are based on nothing more than scaremongering. The German-born Pontiff said that while some concerns might be valid, it is vital that the international community bases its policies on science rather than the dogma of the environmentalist movement.

A broad consensus is developing among the world's scientific community that Man is the main cause of climate change. But there is also a substantial body of scientific opinion which continues to insist that industrial emissions are not to blame for the phenomenon. Such scientists point out that fluctuations in the Earth's temperature are normal.

He said that if no action was taken, the world would face impacts such as drought, famine and rising sea levels.

Delegates are hoping to agree a "Bali roadmap" leading to further cuts in greenhouse gas emissions when the Kyoto Protocol targets expire in 2012.

"We gather because the time for equivocation is over," said Mr Ban.

"Climate change is the defining challenge of our age. The science is clear; climate change is happening, the impact is real. The time to act is now."

Other rabbis have also called for the construction of a Jewish prayer site on the Temple Mount. Former Chief Sephardic Rabbi Mordechai Eliyahu is among them, though he has not campaigned for this cause. Other members on the Chief Rabbinate committee are Be'er Sheva's Chief Rabbi Yehuda Deri and Tzfat's Chief Rabbi Shmuel Eliyahu.

Jewish Temple Mount supporters greeted Rabbi Cohen's announcement with enthusiasm. The Movement for the Establishment of the Temple declared, "The holiday of Chanukah, commemorating the liberation and purification of the Mount and the Temple, is the perfect time for the establishment of a prayer site for the Jewish People on the Mount. This will be a step towards full Jewish sovereignty over the holy site."

Rabbi Cohen took advantage of the opportunity to call upon the observant Jewish public to visit the site of the Holy Temple. He said this must be done only after taking the prescribed Halakhic [Jewish legal] precautions, such as immersing in a mikveh beforehand and others.

The Vatican press office confirmed that the Pope received the Palestinian diplomat in audience today, but did not offer any details of the meeting.

According to the French-language news agency I. Media, Armali delivered a message on behalf of the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in which the leader requests an "active presence" on the part of the Holy See in the Middle East peace process.

According to the agency, the Palestinian diplomat recognized "the important role of the Vatican in the question of Jerusalem's status."

The BBC's Aleem Maqbool in Ramallah says it is the largest military incursion of Gaza for months, coming exactly two weeks after the Annapolis meeting that heralded a new round of peace negotiations. The incursion was launched not far from the Sufa crossing point into Gaza, an area regularly used by militants to launch rocket and mortar attacks at Israel.

Israeli government spokesman Mark Regev told the BBC the operation was designed to protect Israel's civilian population. "We've had over the last few months some 4,000 rockets fired from Gaza into Israeli territory, trying to kill Israeli civilians.