Britain's energy plans call for tapping Iceland's geothermal resources in a move that could rekindle talk of creating a "supergrid" for electricity linking the continent, UK, North Africa and Iceland.

But experts say the project is too expensive and technically challenging to be feasible in the foreseeable future.

"Interconnectors in North West Europe will lead to electricity flows following the rules of supply and demand. So it will flow where it is needed, which is good for our security of supply," the UK's Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) said.

European Union ambassadors were due to meet on Wednesday in an effort to settle a dispute over the allocation of seats to member states on the United Nations' Green Climate Fund (GCF) board, sources close to the matter said.

U.N. climate talks in Durban last year agreed on the design of the fund, which is aimed at channeling up to $100 billion a year to help developing countries adapt to climate change.

France's nuclear-safety watchdog ordered immediate upgrades to nuclear reactors to guard against natural disasters, which Électricité de France SA said could require €10 billion, or roughly $13 billion, in additional costs.

In a review following last year's Fukushima nuclear accident in Japan, the Autorité de Sûreté Nucléaire concluded that no plants needed to be shut down immediately but that steps should be taken as "soon as possible" to improve safety at France's 58 reactors.

Unrest in North Africa has set back in the short term ambitious plans to develop solar energy for use locally and in Europe, but for the longer term the region's abundant sunshine offers huge investment potential, the head of France's Medgrid said on Thursday.

The grid alliance's chairman Andre Merlin was speaking after signing a memorandum of understanding on future cooperation with solar project group Desertec, backed by the European Commission, which is keen to increase its supplies of renewable and reliable energy.

The small western-European country of Belgium currently has two commercial nuclear sites and a total of seven reactors. Nuclear energy accounts for over half of the nation's power consumption, a total of about 45 billion kilowatt-hours per year. Although typically quite fractured, Belgium's political parties have reached a consensus on nuclear power. The oldest reactors are to be shut down by 2015 and all nuclear reactors at both sites will be shut down by 2025. The plan is conditional on Belgium finding enough energy from alternative sources to prevent power shortages.

Europe's first exchange for trading wood pellets, used to replace coal in electricity generation, will be launched on November 3 in the port of Rotterdam, Anglo-Dutch exchange APX Endex said in a statement.

The global market of wood pellets is growing as a result of world-wide policies to cut CO2 emissions and replace fossil fuels with renewable sources of energy.

The biomass exchange is joint project of Anglo-Dutch power and gas exchange APX-Endex and Europe's biggest port, agreed in 2010.

A violent storm that lashed an outdoor rock music festival in northern Belgium killed five people, Hasselt mayor Hilde Claes said yesterday.

Ten more were seriously injured with three in critical condition, police said, as two stages collapsed, trees were uprooted and hailstones "the size of golf balls" rained down on petrified youths, witnesses said.

Organisers, who had drawn capacity crowds of 65,000 fans for each of the three days the event was due to run, called a halt to planned performances by global names such as Eminem and the Foo Fighters.

Belgiumis keen to provide support to Bangladeshin developing its renewable energy sector for helping the country in solvingits current power crisis. This was revealed on Thursday while newly appointed BelgiumAmbassador to Bangladesh Pierre Vaesen presented his credentials to PresidentZillur Rahman at Bangabhaban here.

Just like our people, every Indian-origin drug will be counted and have its history documented soon.