The chief of staff of Syria's rebel army issued a strong call for arms and ammunition from Western nations Wednesday, saying that if helped, the insurgents could topple President Bashar Assad's regime "within a month".

"What we have now is little, very very little," Brigadier General Selim Idriss said in Brussels, where he spoke on the invitation of a group of centrist political parties in the European Parliament.

France channeled millions of dollars in ransom payments to the al-Qaida-linked militants its troops are currently fighting in Mali, according to a former U.S. ambassador in the region.

In an interview aired Friday, Vicki Huddleston said France had paid $17 million (12.7 million euros) to free French hostages seized from a uranium mine in its former colony Niger in 2010.

Thousands of tobacconists from across Europe marched on European Union headquarters on Tuesday to protest against a planned EU crackdown on smoking that includes grueseome health warnings placarded on packets.

From Austria, Germany and Poland, but most largely from France and Italy, 2,200 marchers according to police, 3,500 according to organizers, protested against measures they say harm small retailers and encourage cigarette smuggling.

The European Union welcomes Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday, highlighting its partnership with a Moscow determined to forcefully defend its interests against Western interference.

EU officials described the 30th EU-Russia summit as topping "15 years of intense summitry" between "indispensable partners" in a changing world.

Six world powers will discuss on Wednesday in Brussels making a "more creative" and sweetened offer to persuade Iran to scale back its controversial nuclear program, diplomats said.

The gathering of the P5+1 -- Britain, China, France, Russia, the United States, and Germany -- will "see if there are ways on which we can improve on the offer (rejected in June in talks in Moscow) to Iran", one senior Western envoy said Tuesday.

Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi travels on Thursday to Brussels for talks with European Union leaders on his first trip to Europe since his election, the EU said in a statement.

Morsi, who in June was elected Egypt's first Islamist leader following an uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak early last year, is due to meet EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso.

The U.S. embassy and several Belgian government offices were evacuated Wednesday after police found a suspect vehicle nearby and called in the bomb squad, officials said.

A U.S. spokesman said staff from the embassy as well as the U.S. mission to the European Union left the building early afternoon after police informed them of the suspect vehicle.

A suspected Islamist stabbed two policemen Friday at an underground station in a Brussels neighborhood where scuffles broke out a week earlier, local media reported.

The two victims, a man and a woman who were attacked during a routine check, did not sustain life-threatening wounds, the reports said.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati stated on Friday that Lebanon has long stood as an example of tolerance and democracy in the region, adding that the country is serious in implementing political, economic, and social reform.

He said: “Maintaining stability must not prevent us from implementing all forms of necessary reform, regardless how painful they may be.”

Prime Minister Najib Miqati is scheduled to travel to Brussels on Wednesday after holding a cabinet session at the Baabda Palace, headed by Presidents Michel Suleiman, reported the daily An Nahar on Sunday.

The premier is expected to hold talks with his Belgian counterpart Elio Di Rupo and a number of high-ranking officials, including some from the European Commission.