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Leaders of Japan, N.Korea to meet

TOKYO - Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi will meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Il next week in a summit touted by the Japanese government Friday as an attempt to engage Kim on a range of sensitive issues including nuclear proliferation.

Foremost on the agenda will be an effort by Koizumi to secure the release of relatives of Japanese citizens abducted by North Korean agents during the 1970s and 1980s. But Koizumi's talks in the North Korean capital of Pyongyang on May 22 are intended to go beyond the abduction issue, he said. He will seek a breakthrough to a 20-month impasse over North Korea's nuclear weapons programs and press forward with stalled talks to normalize ties between Japan and North Korea, an initiative discussed at Koizumi's first summit with Kim in September 2002.

Also Friday, Mohamed ElBaradei, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said North Korea poses the world's No. 1 security problem, and the way the international community responds will be an important precedent.

ElBaradei said North Korea's pursuit of nuclear weapons "sends the worst signal to the would-be proliferators" that if they accelerate their weapons programs, they will be "immune" and powerful countries will negotiate with them.

RAFAH, Gaza Strip - Heavy fighting raged in a refugee camp Friday, killing two Israeli soldiers and a Palestinian man and trapping residents in their homes, the army and witnesses said.

Troops seized several houses and army bulldozers knocked down at least 35 buildings on the edge of the camp, trying to secure the area for soldiers searching for the remains of five killed there in a blast this week.

Also, Secretary of State Colin Powell intends to tell Palestinian leaders at meetings this weekend they should jump on Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's offer to dismantle Jewish settlements in Gaza and withdraw troops.

Powell plans to meet with Palestinian Prime Minister Ahmed Qureia in Amman, Jordan, today and later with Arab and other Palestinian leaders at an economic conference at a Dead Sea resort.

VATICAN CITY - Catholics should welcome Muslim immigrants without prejudice, and Muslims must respect the values of a democracy - including equality between men and women, the Vatican said Friday in a document on worldwide migration.

The document urged Catholics to be cautious about considering marrying a Muslim, repeating a long-standing Roman Catholic policy toward mixed marriages, as Muslims represent a new wave of immigrants to predominantly Christian countries.

BRUSSELS, Belgium - The European Union's head office said Friday it would approve a type of genetically modified corn for human consumption, ending a 6-year biotech moratorium that the United States has challenged at the World Trade Organization.

European farmers will still be banned from growing the Bt11 insect-resistant corn, however.