ROME (AP) - The EU must continue negotiating with Turkey and Balkan countries aiming to join the 25-nation bloc even though the enlargement process suffered a setback with the rejection of the EU Constitution by French and Dutch voters, the Italian and German foreign ministers said yesterday. Foreign Minister Gianfranco Fini said that on a trip to Turkey planned for later this week he would affirm “that for Italy nothing changes regarding the undertakings we have made.” “Europe cannot allow itself a pause” in its efforts toward enlargement and integration, Germany’s Joschka Fischer said after holding talks at the Italian Foreign Ministry.

BUCHAREST (Reuters) - Romania’s centrist government will continue with reforms required for EU membership in 2007, Prime Minister Calin Tariceanu said yesterday, despite early elections expected in September or October. The centrists hope to win an increased parliamentary majority to help them push through reforms needed to join the wealthy bloc. “Before we will submit our resignation, we will approve during two government meetings a series of measures needed for the EU accession calendar so that there would be no delays,” Tariceanu told reporters.

Unknown gunmen sprayed a moving car with bullets in western Kosovo yesterday killing two occupants, police said. The attack occurred in the village of Rausic, 80 kilometers (50 miles) west of the provincial capital Pristina, police spokesman Avni Morina said. The gunmen fired from a moving vehicle, he said. Officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the probable target was Xheladin Musaj, who died in the attack and was a member of a family that had been feuding with former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj’s family. (AP)

Police have removed a rocket-propelled grenade launcher left outside a leading pro-opposition newspaper in Montenegro, the paper reported yesterday, describing the incident as a “threat” against its staff. The Dan daily reported that a masked man was seen walking up to the newspaper’s offices in Podgorica shortly before midnight Sunday and leaving a bag before slipping away. (AP)

A man set fire to himself yesterday outside Romanian government headquarters in Bucharest in an apparent desperate bid to get custody of his son who is living in Spain, news agencies reported. Police extinguished the flames and Grosu was transported to hospital. The director of the Plastic Surgery and Burns Hospital, Ileana Boiangiu, told Mediafax that he suffered burns over half his body. (AP)