World

ROME — German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Thursday urged European leaders to protect EU borders or risk a "return to nationalism" as the continent battles its worst migration crisis since World War II.

As Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi kicked off two days of talks in Rome with Merkel and senior EU officials, the German leader said Europe must defend its borders "from the Mediterranean to the North Pole" or suffer the political consequences. 

Support for far-right and anti-immigrant parties is on the rise in several countries on the continent which saw more than a million people arrive on its shores last year.

In Austria, Norbert Hofer of the far-right Freedom Party is expected to win a presidential run-off on May 22 after romping to victory in the first round on an anti-immigration platform.

Merkel told a press conference with Renzi that Europe's cherished freedom of movement is at threat, with ramped-up border controls in response to the crisis raising questions over whether the passport-free Schengen zone can survive.

Africa plan 

With over 28,500 migrants arriving since January 1, Italy has once again become the principal entry point for migrants arriving to Europe, following a controversial EU-Turkey deal and the closure of the Balkan route up from Greece.

In previous years, many migrants landing in Italy have headed on to other countries — but with Austria planning to reinstate border controls at the Brenner pass in the Alps, a key transport corridor, Rome fears it could be stuck hosting masses of new arrivals.

Renzi lashed out at Austria on Thursday, describing Vienna's position as "anachronistic".

"This is the wrong attitude even if there is a migrant crisis," he said.

Italy is pushing for NATO naval patrols off Libya in time for the summer people-smuggling season, and a deal with Libya on the model just concluded with Turkey. 

On Thursday, Renzi stressed the need for "a strategy for Africa" to stem the influx from there.

He wants EU aid for African countries that have seen large numbers of migrants set off, in a bid to lessen the poverty that drives many of them to leave home.

"The important thing is to invest in Africa," Renzi said.

But he added that Germany and Italy were in disagreement over how to fund the plan, with Germany against using eurobonds to offer finance to African countries.

Renzi was hosting European Commission leader Jean-Claude Juncker, EU President Donald Tusk and European Parliament chief Martin Schulz for more talks Thursday, ahead of a conference on the future of the EU at 1630 GMT.

On Friday, Pope Francis — who has blasted Western society for its indifference to refugees — will meet with the European leaders.

Merkel, whose country took in more than a million asylum-seekers last year, on Thursday insisted on the need to "respect the human dignity" of immigrants and to "share the burden" of the influx.

Bulgaria's Prime Minister Boyko Borisov, in an interview with AFP, took a stance unusual among Central and Eastern European leaders in agreeing with her.

He pledged to accept Bulgaria's quota of 1,200 asylum-seekers under an EU plan, saying: "It does not matter if it is 1,200 or 2,000 people — we have taken a commitment to accept them." 

In Austria, far-right presidential candidate Hofer was meanwhile attempting to woo more mainstream voters by saying he believed it was possible to integrate migrants.

"I think that if we do everything we can to make sure the people who are already in Austria integrate themselves, it's still possible," he told APA news agency. 

PYONGYANG — North Korea readied on Thursday to kick off its most important ruling party gathering for nearly 40 years, amid persistent concerns of a nuclear test, despite no clear signs of an imminent detonation.

Leader Kim Jong-un is expected to deliver a keynote address at the opening of Friday's party congress, which will be minutely scrutinised for suggestions of a significant policy shift or personnel changes in the nuclear-armed nation's governing elite.

The 33-year-old Kim was not even born when the last congress was held in 1980 to crown his father, Kim Jong-il, as the heir apparent to his grandfather and the North's founding leader Kim Il-sung.

While the agenda — and even the duration — of the event is still unknown, its main objective is widely seen as cementing Kim Jong-un's status as supreme leader and legitimate inheritor of the Kim family's dynastic rule.

The congress is also expected to confirm, as party doctrine, Kim's "byungjin" policy of pursuing nuclear weapons in tandem with economic development.

Nuclear drive 

Ahead of the congress, national and Workers' Party flags lined the broad, rainswept streets of Pyongyang, while banners carried slogans such as "Great comrades Kim Il-sung and Kim Jong-il will always be with us".

Since Kim took power after the death of his father in late 2011, North Korea has carried out two nuclear tests and two successful space rocket launches that were widely seen as disguised ballistic missile tests.

Even as the international community responded with condemnation and sanctions, Kim kept the throttle opened up on the North's single-minded drive towards a credible nuclear deterrent with additional missile and technical tests.

There has been widespread speculation that the congress would be preceded by another nuclear test in a gesture of strength and defiance that would allow Kim to claim genuine nuclear power status in his speech.

In an analysis of the most recent satellite pictures of the North's main nuclear test site at Punggye-ri, the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University on Thursday said there was no clear evidence, one way or the other, of whether an underground detonation was imminent.

The images dated May 2 showed only a "very low level of activity", the institute said on its closely followed 38North website.

"Whether the level of activity indicates that Pyongyang has made all necessary preparations to conduct a nuclear test on short notice at this site or is associated with normal maintenance work remains unclear," it added.

South Korean government officials believe the North is ready to conduct a test as soon as the order is given, and say a decision might have been taken to test during the congress, which the world's media have been invited to Pyongyang to cover.

Officials in Seoul say they expect the congress to last four days, with the opening day devoted to Kim's speech and a lengthy report on the party's achievements.

The congress will also elect a new central committee, which in turn selects the party politburo.

Some analysts are predicting significant personnel changes, as Kim brings in a new, younger generation of leaders, picked for their loyalty to him.

Preparing for the congress involved mobilising the entire country in a 70-day campaign that New York-based Human Rights Watch denounced as a mass exercise in coerced labour.

"This ruling party congress is a rare event, but it's made possible by the forced labour that untold thousands of North Koreans are subject to as part of everyday life under Kim Jong-un's abusive rule," said Phil Robertson, the group's deputy Asia director.

People across the country, including women and children, were ordered to demonstrate their loyalty through increased forced labor to produce more goods and crops in order to cover the costs of the congress, Robertson said.

BRUSSELS — The European Commission proposed a system to distribute asylum seekers across the EU on Wednesday that aims to ease the load on states like Greece and Italy but drew immediate condemnation from governments in Eastern Europe.

The European Union executive published legislative proposals to reform the so-called Dublin system of EU asylum rules that includes a "fairness mechanism" under which each of the 28 states would be assigned a percentage quota of all asylum seekers in the bloc that it would be expected to handle.

The quotas would reflect national population and wealth and, if a country found itself handling 50 per cent more than its due share, it could relocate people elsewhere in the bloc. States could refuse to take people for a year — but only if they paid another country 250,000 euros per person to accommodate them.

"There is no a la carte solidarity in this Union," First Vice President Frans Timmermans told reporters. "This is a way to be able to show solidarity in a situation where... you are not able to take the refugees which were allocated to you."

But at a meeting in Prague, ministers from Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic all repeated their opposition to the idea of relocation: "It makes no sense, it violates EU member states' rights," Polish Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak told reporters. Hungary's foreign minister called it "blackmail".

A two-year emergency relocation scheme was set up last year as Greece struggled to cope with the chaotic arrival of nearly a million people, many of them Syrian refugees, most of whom reached Germany. It was agreed over the furious objections of several central and eastern states, two of whom, Hungary and Slovakia, are contesting the quota system in the EU courts.

In fact, only 1,441 asylum seekers have been relocated out of the 160,000 allowed for under the current temporary scheme.

The proposals, which also include measures to speed up the process of handling asylum claims and tighter controls on the movements of migrants themselves, need backing from governments and the European Parliament — a process that officials expect to be an uphill battle and involve many amendments.

Germany, the bloc's main paymaster and destination for the bulk of migrants crossing the Mediterranean, has pushed hard for a permanent relocation system and has voiced frustration with the refusal of governments in the east who benefit the most from EU subsidies to take in asylum seekers.

Poland, Hungary and other formerly communist states say immigration, especially from the Muslim cultures of the Middle East, would disrupt their homogeneous societies. Governments also object to paying as an alternative to taking people in.

A similar proposal last year to set a payment of 0.002 per cent of GDP was not taken up in the temporary scheme. The Commission did not issue its quota figures. Last year's tables gave Germany a roughly 18 per cent share, France 14 per cent, Poland 5.6 per cent and Hungary 1.8 per cent.

‘Controversial’

Any reform of the system, from which Britain, Ireland and Denmark are exempt, will require majority approval by EU governments. But senior officials say EU leaders will try to avoid forcing a deal through over strong minority objections, as happened with the temporary relocation scheme last September.

Even the authors of the proposal admit it is "sensitive" and "controversial" but hope it bridges diverging expectations from member states, EU sources said.

Splits between east and west, north and south over migration have posed one of the biggest challenges the European Union has faced and leaders' main hope is that a new deal with Turkey to hold down the numbers arriving can take the heat out of a debate that has seen nationalist parties surge in polls across Europe.

Italy has led a push for reform of a Dublin system that gives responsibility for handling asylum claims to the first country migrants arrive in. The Commission last month floated a possibility of scrapping that in favour of a central EU system but has now favoured the relocation system.

Chaotic movements of migrants, including many allowed by Italy and Greece to head north without being registered, have thrown the bloc's cherished Schengen system of open borders into disarray, with governments putting up new barriers to travel.

EU officials hope that the deal with Turkey, from where the bulk of 1.3 million people reached Europe last year, will stem the flow and allow the Union to regain control of its external borders and hence restore order in the Schengen area.

Also on Wednesday, Brussels was expected to confirm a lifting of visa restrictions on Turks as part of the deal with Ankara. The EU is offering to take in refugees directly from Turkey, which hosts 2.7 million Syrians, and such resettlements would be taken into account in countries' quotas for relocation.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump became the last man standing in the race for the Republican US presidential nomination on Wednesday as one after the other his sole remaining rivals, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, faded out of the picture.

Anointed the presumptive nominee after winning Indiana on Tuesday, the 69-year-old New York billionaire turned to a new phase in his campaign, planning to set up a vice presidential selection committee and stepping up efforts to seek unity with more Republicans.

But the wounds from a brutal primary battle were still raw among many Republican loyalists who simply cannot bear to support Trump because they worry he could spell disaster for the party in the November 8 elections.

Kasich, the Ohio governor who stayed in the race in hopes of persuading Republicans to choose him as the nominee at a contested convention in July, made plans to get out of the race now that a contested convention has been averted.

News reports said Kasich would suspend his campaign, making it official in Columbus, Ohio, at 5pm EDT (2100 GMT).

Trump has overcome sustained opposition from Republican rivals by using his star power to give voice to an anti-establishment movement. His supporters have been wildly enthusiastic about his "America First" platform, which has strayed far from some conservative bulwarks like free trade and military interventionism.

Trump's immediate challenge is to mend deep fissures within the Republican Party, easing tensions with party loyalists who have been appalled by his bombastic, bullying style, his denigrating comments about women and his proposals to build a wall on the border with Mexico and deport 11 million illegal immigrants.

In a series of Wednesday morning television interviews, Trump made clear he would not be looking to placate everyone after a tumultuous primary campaign in which many establishment Republicans rejected him and spawned Stop Trump and Never Trump movements.

"I am confident that I can unite much of it, some of it I don't want," Trump said on NBC's "Today" show. "Honestly, there are some people I really don't want. People will be voting for me. They're not voting for the party."

Trump believes more Republicans will support him when they consider the possibility of Hillary Clinton, favorite to be the Democratic nominee, being elected president, Trump spokeswoman Katrina Pierson said.

"They're going to come around," she said on MSNBC.

The New York Times quoted Trump as saying he would soon form a team to help him in the search for a vice presidential nominee to be announced in July. He put retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson on the committee. Carson endorsed Trump after pulling out of Republican race earlier this year.

Trump, a former reality television star who has never held public office and who has honed an “outsider” image, suggested he might make a more conventional choice as his running mate.

"I'm more inclined to go with a political person," Trump told the Times. "I have business very much covered."

Trump's win in Indiana cleared the way for him to prepare for a likely match-up in the November general election against former secretary of state Clinton. She lost the Indiana primary to her tenacious challenger, US Senator Bernie Sanders, but remains on course to become her party's nominee.

Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus called Trump the party's presumptive nominee in a tweet on Tuesday night and said, "We all need to unite and focus" on defeating Clinton.

In an interview Wednesday, Priebus acknowledged achieving Republican unity would be difficult. "It's going to take some time but we're going to get there," he said on CNN.

Republican Senator Deb Fischer of Nebraska made clear she would support the nominee but is not comfortable with Trump, in an interview with Nebraska Radio Network.

"Mr. Trump is going to have to work hard to bring the party together," she said. "He's going to have to work hard to explain his stance on different issues and to talk about the principles and values he holds. I look forward to having a robust race here."

Support for Trump among Republicans nationally jumped in recent weeks to the highest level of the primary campaign, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling. A recent poll found Trump with the support of 53 per cent of Republican participants, well above Cruz at 25 per cent. Kasich had 16 per cent.

In a potential general election match-up, however, Clinton led Trump by about 10 per centage points among likely voters. The poll included 623 Democrats and 556 Republicans and had a credibility interval of 5 per centage points.

Clinton called Trump a “loose cannon” on Wednesday and said America should not take a risk on an unreliable candidate.

MOSCOW/BRUSSELS — Russia will reinforce its western and southern flanks with three new divisions by the year-end, officials said on Wednesday, threatening retaliation to NATO's plans to boost its military presence in eastern members Poland and the Baltic States.

While Moscow accuses the Western alliance of threatening its Russia's security, NATO says intensified military drills and its plans for increased deployments on its eastern flank are purely defensive after Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in 2014 and backed separatist rebels in Ukraine.

US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter said on Monday NATO was weighing up rotating four battalions of troops through eastern member states amid rising tension in the Baltic.

Russia has scrambled jets to intercept US reconnaissance planes in recent weeks and made simulated attack passes near a US warship in the Baltic Sea.

Speaking in Brussels on Tuesday, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg confirmed the alliance would deploy "batallion-sized" multinational units on a rotational basis in the east.

Andrei Kelin, a department head at Russia's Foreign Ministry, said the proposed NATO deployment was a source of concern for Moscow. Russia once held sway in eastern Europe as the Soviet-era overlord.

"This would be a very dangerous build-up of armed forces pretty close to our borders," Kelin told the Interfax news agency. "I am afraid this would require certain retaliatory measures, which the Russian Defence Ministry is already talking about."

Russia announced in January it would create three new military divisions and bring five new strategic nuclear missile regiments into service.

On Wednesday, Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu said the new divisions would be formed by the end of this year to counter what Moscow saw as NATO's growing strength.

Russian media, citing unnamed military sources, said the new Russian divisions would most likely be motorised rifle ones and number around 10,000 soldiers each.

"The Ministry of Defence has adopted a series of measures to counter the growing capacity of NATO forces in close proximity to the Russian borders," Shoigu said in televised comments.

The new divisions are likely to be deployed in military districts close to Russia's borders with Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states and Finland as well as Georgia and Azerbaijan.

NATO to keep course

"What we do is defensive, it's proportionate... And therefore we will continue to respond," Stoltenberg said.

"There can be no doubt that what NATO does is a reaction to the Russian behaviour in Ukraine. We didn't have any troops in Baltic countries... before the illegal annexation of Crimea and Russia's destabilising activities in eastern Ukraine."

He was speaking at news conference with NATO's new Supreme Allied Commander Europe, General Curtis Scaparrotti, who said he intended to continue NATO's response so far to what the West sees as a more assertive and muscle-flexing Russia.

"My intent is to continue that. I think that is the response," he said, adding NATO and Russia still needed to talk.

"I do believe we should have communication, it's how we ensure that we don't have an accident or miscalculation. But I would reinforce this by saying it's expected that they adhere to international norms and international laws. And until such time, those communications will likely be limited."

Scaparrotti said he was in favour of arms supplies to help Ukraine "successfully defend their territory and their sovereignty". 

STUTTGART, Germany — Defence Secretary Ash Carter used a US military changing-of-the-guard ceremony Tuesday to blast Russian aggression in Europe, saying Moscow is "going backward in time" with warlike actions that compel a US military buildup on NATO's eastern flank.

"We do not seek a cold — let alone a hot — war with Russia," Carter said. "We do not seek to make Russia an enemy. But make no mistake, we will defend our allies, the rules-based international order, and the positive future it affords us."

Carter presided at a ceremony installing Army Gen. Curtis "Mike" Scaparrotti as head of US European Command and the top NATO commander in Europe. Scaparrotti most recently commanded US and allied troops in South Korea and has commanded troops in Afghanistan. He succeeds Air Force Gen. Philip Breedlove, who has pointedly and repeatedly warned that NATO must better prepare for an adversarial relationship with Russia.

Carter's remarks reflect US aggravation with Moscow on multiple fronts, including its intervention in eastern Ukraine, its annexation of Crimea in 2014 and what Carter called Russian efforts to intimidate its Baltic neighbours — which the United States is treaty-bound to defend because they are NATO members. "Most disturbing", Carter said, is loose talk by Russia about using nuclear weapons.

"Moscow's nuclear saber-rattling raises troubling questions about Russia's leaders' commitment to strategic stability, their respect for norms against the use of nuclear weapons, and whether they respect the profound caution that nuclear-age leaders showed with regard to brandishing nuclear weapons," he said.

The end of the Cold War, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, was thought to have virtually ended the prospect of nuclear conflict with Moscow. But the speeches at Tuesday's change-of-command ceremony emphasised the possibility of history repeating itself, or at least ending a period of warmer US-Russian relations.

Breedlove, who will retire after serving three years as NATO's top commander in Europe, recalled that he began his Air Force career in Europe more than 30 years ago.

"My career started here in a cold war trying to keep the peace. I think my career is now ending here trying to prevent a cold war and continue to keep the peace," he said.

Carter said he regretted the deterioration in relations with Moscow.

"We haven't had to prioritise deterrence on NATO's eastern flank for the past 25 years, but while I wish it were otherwise, now we have to," he said at an outdoor ceremony, speaking from a podium framed by birch trees and drenched in sunshine.

Carter outlined steps the Obama administration is taking to increase US and allied combat capabilities in Europe with the threat of Russian aggression in mind. These include plans to add a third US Army combat brigade in Europe in the coming year as part of a $3.4 billion initiative designed to further reassure allies of the US commitment to their security and to deter Russian aggression.

On Monday, Carter said NATO is considering establishing a continuous rotation of up to 4,000 troops in the Baltic states and possibly Poland. That force, which could include some number of US troops, is among options being discussed by NATO officials and is expected to be considered at a NATO defence meeting in June.

"Our budget also reflects how we're doing more, and in more ways, with specific NATO allies," Carter said. "Given increased Russian submarine activity in the North Atlantic, this includes building toward a continuous arc of highly capable maritime patrol aircraft operating over the Greenland-Iceland-United Kingdom gap up to Norway's North Cape."

Carter emphasised his hope that Russia will abandon what he called its confrontational approach.

"The United States will continue to hold out the possibility that Russia will assume the role of a constructive partner moving forward, not isolated and going backward in time as it appears to be today," he said. "Much of the progress we've made together since the end of the Cold War, we accomplished with Russia. Let me repeat that. Not in spite of Russia, not against Russia, not without Russia, but with it."

He made no mention of two post-Cold War developments that many believe prompted, at least in part, Russia's turn away from the West, namely, the expansion of NATO to Russia's very doorstep and US placement of missile defenses in Europe.

“We'll keep the door open for Russia,” he said. “But it's up to the Kremlin to decide.”

PARIS — An international team of scientists said Monday they had discovered a trio of Earth-like planets that are the best bet so far for finding life outside our solar system.

The three orbit an ultracool dwarf star a mere 39 light years away, and are likely comparable in size and temperature to Earth and Venus, they reported in a study, published in Nature.

"This is the first opportunity to find chemical traces of life outside our solar system," said lead author Michael Gillon, an astrophysicist at the University of Liege in Belgium.

All three planets had the "winning combination" of being similar in size to Earth, "potentially habitable" and close enough so their atmospheres can be analysed with current technology, he told AFP. 

The find opens up a whole new "hunting ground" for habitable planets, he added.

Gillon and colleagues calibrated a 60-centimetre elescope in Chile, known as TRAPPIST, to track several dozen dwarf stars neither big nor hot enough to be visible with optical telescopes.

They zeroed in on a particularly promising one — now known as TRAPPIST-1 — about one eighth the size of the Sun, and significantly cooler.

Observing it for months, the astronomers noticed that its infrared signal faded slightly at regular intervals, evidence of objects in orbit. 

Further analysis confirmed they were exoplanets — planets revolving around stars outside our solar system.

The innermost two circle their dwarf star every 1.5 and 2.4 days, though they are hit with only four and two times the amount of heat-generating radiation that Earth receives from the Sun.

The more distant orbit of the third planet takes between four and 73 days, according to the study.

"So far, the existence of such 'red worlds' orbiting ultra-cool dwarf stars was purely theoretical, but now we have not just one lonely planet but three," said co-author Emmanuel Jehin, also from the University of Liege.

He called the discovery a "paradigm shift" in the search for life elsewhere in the universe.

Given their size and proximity to their low-intensity star, all three planets may have regions at temperatures within a range suitable for sustaining liquid water and life, the study concluded.

Hitting the jackpot 

Their proximity to Earth means scientists will be able to find out a lot more.

"These planets are so close, and their star so small, we can study their atmosphere and composition," said co-author Julien de Wit, a postdoc at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

"This is a jackpot for the field," he said in a statement, adding that it should be possible to determine if they harbour life "within our generation".

Up to now, the search for Earth-like orbs in our Galaxy and beyond centred on stars like our Sun, more massive and hotter than the dwarf around which the newly-discovered worlds orbit.

But the discovery suggests that a significant fraction of ultracool dwarfs hold potentially habitable planets in their gravitational sway.

"At the scale of the Galaxy, this means billions of additional places where life might have developed," Gillon said.

The mass of the three planets circling TRAPPIST-1 cannot be less than 50 per cent of that of Earth, and are probably not more than double, he added.

"They could be richer or poorer in water and rocks than our planet, and if they have an atmosphere, it is probably very different than ours."

To give rise to life as we know it, planets have to be in a "Goldilocks zone" in relation to their star, far enough away so that its heat doesn't evaporate all the water, but close enough so that it can exist in liquid form.

Building and using the TRAPPIST infrared telescope to hunt for planets was a risky strategy.

"It's not looking at 100,000 stars at a time, like the Kepler Space Telescope," de Wit said. "It is few of them that you're spending time on, one at a time."

"And one paid off," he added.

BERLIN — A sweeping free trade deal being negotiated between the European Union and the United States would lower food safety and environmental standards, Greenpeace said on Monday, citing confidential documents from the talks.

But the European Commission said the documents reflected negotiating positions, not any final outcome, and the EU's chief negotiator dismissed some of Greenpeace's points as "flatly wrong".

The US Trade Representative's office also rejected them. While it would not comment on the "validity of alleged leaks", a spokesman said "the interpretations being given to these texts appear to be misleading at best and flat out wrong at worst".

Greenpeace opposes the proposed Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), arguing with other critics that it would hand too much power to big business at the expense of consumers and national governments.

Supporters say the TTIP would deliver more than $100 billion of economic gains on both sides of the Atlantic.

Greenpeace Netherlands published 248 pages of "consolidated texts" for 13 chapters, or about half, of the deal on the website TTIP-leaks.org on Monday. They date from early April, before a round of meetings in New York last week.

"We've done this to ignite a debate," Greenpeace trade expert Juergen Knirsch told a news conference in Berlin, adding that the documents showed the negotiations should be halted.

"The best thing the EU Commission can do is to say 'Sorry, we've made a mistake'."

European Trade Commissioner Cecilia Malmstrom called the leak a "storm in a teacup" and told an audience in Geneva the EU would not compromise its principles just to get a deal before US President Barack Obama leaves office in January 2017.

"If it is not good enough we just have to say 'Sorry but we have to put this on ice' and wait for the next administration. Obviously we lose time and momentum but we cannot agree to TTIP-lite or something that's not good enough," she said.

Greenpeace said the documents showed differences had become entrenched between the two sides of the Atlantic. Malmstrom said it was "not very dramatic" to say there were disagreements and the EU was being as open as possible about the negotiations.

Knirsch said the texts showed the United States wanted to replace Europe's "precautionary principle" — which prevents potentially harmful products from coming to market when their effect is unknown or disputed — with a less stringent approach.

Malmstrom said the precautionary principle was part of the "acquis" — the laws binding the EU together — and Greenpeace's assertion was not true.

Malmstrom called on EU governments to do more to explain TTIP's merits to their populations.

In Europe, there is widespread opposition to allowing more imports of US agricultural products due to concerns about genetically modified foods.

In Brussels, EU chief negotiator Ignacio Garcia Bercero dismissed Greenpeace's comments on the precautionary principle, adding: "We have made crystal clear that we would not agree on anything that implies changes of our regulatory regime on GMOs [genetically modified organisms]."

The negotiators aim to have "consolidated texts" by July, when a 14th round of talks is due to be held. They would then try to settle the thornier issues in the second half of 2016.

A spokesman for the German government said it was still working to complete a deal. An Economy Ministry spokeswoman said Germany would not accept lower food safety standards.

BERLIN — German politicians from across the spectrum criticised the anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD) on Monday after the party declared Islam incompatible with the constitution.

The AfD, which has surged onto the political scene since its launch three years ago, backed a manifesto pledge at a congress on Sunday to ban on minarets and the burqa, the full face and body-covering gown worn by some Muslim women.

With concerns about Europe's migrant crisis fuelling the AfD's rise, Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative Christian Democrats led criticism of the party.

"What the AfD has decided on is an attack on almost all religions," Armin Laschet, deputy chairman of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU), told ARD television.

"They have identified Islam as a foreign body in Germany," he said. "That is divisive, and startling to a Christian Democratic party for which faith has meaning."

Greens parliamentary party leader Katrin Goering-Eckardt described the AfD manifesto as "reactionary" and accused the party of dividing society with Islamophobia.

Opinion polls give the AfD support of up to 14 percent, presenting a serious challenge to Merkel's conservatives and other established parties ahead of a 2017 federal election. They rule out any coalition with the AfD.

The AfD has no lawmakers in the federal parliament in Berlin but has members in half of Germany's 16 regional state assemblies.

Merkel has said freedom of religion for all is guaranteed by Germany's constitution and that Islam is a part of Germany.

Germany is home to nearly 4 million Muslims, about 5 per cent of the total population. Community leaders have called on politicians to ensure that no religious community be disadvantaged and that Islam not be defined as a "foe".

Many of the longer established Muslim community came from Turkey to find work. Last year, more than a million, mostly Muslim migrants, arrived in Germany. Most had fled conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Alexander Gauland, who leads the AfD in the eastern state of Brandenburg, said Muslims could still practise their faith in Germany.

"A Muslim in Germany can follow his religion without minarets. The AfD has nothing against places of worship," Gauland told Deutschlandfunk radio, insisting his party did not want existing minarets torn down but rather no new ones built.

Aiman Mazyek, head of Germany's Central Council of Muslims who has likened the AfD's attitude towards his community to that of Hitler's Nazis towards Jews, told the Osnabruecker Zeitung the AfD manifesto was "an Islamophobic programme" that "is of no help to solve problems, but rather just divides our country".

STUTTGART, Germany — German left-wing demonstrators clashed with police on Saturday as they tried to break up the first full conference of the anti-immigration party Alternative for Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel's policies came under attack.

Police counted up to 2,000 left-wing protesters, some of whom burned tyres and hurled stones and fireworks to try to stop the AfD's congress going ahead in Stuttgart. Some 500 were detained, police said.

Two policemen were slightly injured, but there were no reports of injured among the protesters, police spokesman Lambert Maute said.

Buoyed by the migrant crisis, which saw the arrival of more than 1 million migrants in Germany last year, the AfD has upended German party politics.

After the congress started late, more than 2,000 AfD members listened to their party leaders' call for an end to Merkel's refugee-friendly politics and a return to Christian values.

"We always wondered when the brave child will finally appear to voice the thoughts of the silent majority and declare that the 'Chancellor of no alternatives' is nothing but naked," said party leader Frauke Petry, 40, in her opening speech.

"And I think, this brave child is us," Petry added.

The violence began around dawn and clashes continued for several hours. Police used pepper spray and threatened to use water cannons to stop protesters, some of whom were masked, from getting onto the grounds of the conference. Some demonstrators still managed to assault several party members, they said.

The AfD has mainly run on an anti-migrant and Islam-critical agenda, but now struggles to unite its various fractions under one party programme that could put it on a broader footing.

It currently has representatives in half of Germany's sixteen federal state parliaments and the party has its eyes set on next year's federal elections.

Opinion polls see the party coming in at between 10 and 14 per cent, a serious challenge to established party politics, though these have ruled out forming any coalition with the AfD.

The AfD, however, considers itself in good company on a European level, following election gains by far-right parties across the continent.

Petry used her oratorical skills to denounce what she termed the hypocrisy of the ruling elite whose policies, she said, were directed against the interest of ordinary German citizens.