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Mr Cameron has embarked on a diplomatic offensive by telephone ahead of the EU summit

Prime Minister David Cameron has phoned several of his European counterparts, hours before the start of the EU summit in Brussels, urging them to reject a big rise in the organisation’s budget.

The PM spoke to German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy among others and argued for the “lowest possible” increase.

His plea came amid fears that a 6% rise would cost the UK another £900m a year.

Labour has accused him of failing to stand up for British interests.

Mr Cameron also spoke to European Council president Herman Van Rompuy, Swedish prime minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, and Belgian prime minister Yves Leterme.

The European Council has already agreed in principle to a 2.9% rise in the £107bn EU budget for 2011 – a figure the prime minister is expected to agree to, despite previous UK demands that it should be frozen.

But with members of the European Parliament and European Commission calling for a 6% rise, the final figure is likely to be somewhere in between.

Even the lower figure would see the UK’s contribution grow by more than £400m, at a time of widespread Whitehall cuts.

The BBC’s Europe editor, Gavin Hewitt, says the summit – Mr Cameron’s first as prime minister – will reveal just how hard he is prepared to fight his corner in Europe.

The budget is not on the summit’s formal agenda, but is likely to be widely discussed in meetings between government heads and officials.

Conservative Eurosceptics have called on the government to fight for a freeze or cut in the budget, and Labour has accused it of failing Britain.

Shadow Europe minister Wayne David said: “In government, Labour argued strongly for a freeze in this year’s European Union budget, and Labour MEPs voted against the increase in the European Parliament.

“The Conservatives have talked tough on this issue but they haven’t got a result.

“Instead they have entered government isolated, and failed to stand up for the British interest in their first budget test.

“The Tories are desperate to not talk about Europe, but their failure to speak up is costing Britain.”

The summit will also throw up the issue of imposing sanctions on countries that run up huge deficits to avoid a repeat of the Greek debt crisis.

Referendum

France and particularly Germany believe that a new permanent mechanism for handling financial crises requires a change to the Lisbon Treaty.

The UK is outside the Eurozone, so would not be affected by any treaty change on sanctions.

But David Cameron is aware that if the treaty change happens, MPs on his own party might see it as an opportunity to push for other changes in a bid to bring some powers from Brussels to Westminster.

The government has pledged to hold a referendum on any future European treaty which saw the UK conceding any of its legislative powers to Brussels.

The treaty change would bring in sanctions for countries overshooting the maximum debt level allowed under the EU’s Stability and Growth pact (SGP) – 60% of gross domestic product.

The sanctions would be tightened progressively, if a country failed to address its debt problems within months.

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Inter Milan midfielder Wesley Sneijder signs a contract extension to remain at the club until 2015.

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David Cameron says housing benefit reforms are “fair”

MPs are to discuss controversial planned reforms to housing benefit amid calls from some Lib Dems and Tories for aspects of the changes to be rethought.

Concerns over the proposed £400 a week cap on housing support are set to be raised during a parliamentary debate on the government’s Spending Review.

Labour has said the cap is unfair and may force families out of their homes.

David Cameron has insisted he will stick with all the changes, describing them as “difficult but right”.

He made a robust defence of the proposals, due to come into effect next April, at prime minister’s questions on Wednesday, saying the housing benefit bill had got “completely out of control” under Labour.

Mr Cameron has said it is simply wrong to carry on paying out more than £20,000 a year in housing benefit to a single family as taxpayers’ money was being used to enable people to live in homes working people “couldn’t even dream of”.

His comments came amid suggestions that ministers were prepared to reconsider facets of the plan which have caused most unease, such as the 10% proposed cut in payouts when people have been on jobseeker’s allowance for more than a year.

Several London-based MPs have expressed concern about the impact of this on the poorest people in the city, Deputy Lib Dem leader Simon Hughes calling the measure “harsh and draconian”.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has said the government needs to “mitigate the impact” of the cap to take into account high rental levels in the capital and the fact that people need to stay in an area because of work and their children’s schooling.

The Department of Communities and Local Government is to grant £10m from its homelessness budget to local councils’ funds to ease the consequences of the change, in addition to £60m already allocated for a similar purpose.

According to government figures, 21,000 people will be affected by new caps on the amount families can claim for five, four, three, two and one-bedroomed properties across the UK including 17,000 in London, the majority of whom are out of work.

But 775,000 claimants could be affected by changes to the way local housing benefit levels are calculated, which could see claimants lose an average of £9 a week.

Labour has warned that thousands of people will be forced out of their homes as a result of the changes. Leader Ed Miliband said it showed how “out of touch” the government is with people’s lives.

The opposition will seek to keep up the pressure on the government on Thursday when shadow work and pensions secretary Douglas Alexander meets representatives of housing associations and charities to discuss the issue.

The BBC’s deputy political editor James Landale said that while there was opposition to the plans, it was largely unfocused at this stage.

While ministers were happy to be seen to be clamping down on excessive benefits payouts, he said they were aware of the political impact that any significant demographic upheaval may have, particularly in London.

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Foreclosures increased across a majority of large metropolitan areas

The foreclosure crisis in the US has spread across a wider area of the country, according to Realtytrac, which monitors repossession activity.

The organisation said foreclosure notices increased across a majority of large metropolitan areas, with Chicago and Seattle seeing a sharp rise in foreclosure warnings.

Previously, these cities had seen relatively low levels of activity.

California, Nevada, Florida and Arizona remain the worst affected areas.

They accounted for 19 of the top 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rates between July and September, reported RealtyTrac.

The trend is the latest sign that the US foreclosure crisis is worsening as homeowners – facing high unemployment, slow job growth and uncertainty about house prices – continue to fall behind on their mortgage payments.

The controversy over whether banks mishandled eviction documents was not a factor over the July-to-September quarter monitored, said RealtyTrac.

Earlier in the week, data from rating agency Standard and Poor’s showed that US house prices also began falling again in August, mainly in response to the expired tax credit.

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England’s 2018 World Cup bid team is to withdraw a complaint to Fifa about Russia’s campaign following an apology from their rival bidder.

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At least 11 people were injured when a tornado passed through Lincoln County in North Carolina

Residents of US states from North Dakota to North Carolina are cleaning up after a fierce storm unleashed driving rain, blustery winds, heavy snow and 56 tornadoes in just two days.

The National Weather Service said the storm had caused the second-largest October tornado outbreak on record.

Injuries from the storm have been reported in states across the US.

Conditions in many states returned to normal on Thursday as the storm made its way north-east toward Ontario.

But windy weather is still being felt in some regions in the Midwest, the Great Lakes and the Ohio Valley.

Snow and gusty winds struck North and South Dakota for a second day on Wednesday, leaving roads throughout the state covered with ice and slush.

Tornadoes formed as far east as Virginia, with eight touching down in Indiana, three in Kentucky and six in Ohio. Some residents across the Midwest and the East Coast also lost power as a result of the storm.

Two people in Racine County in Wisconsin were injured when the roof was torn from a tractor factory, while three individuals were hurt in Illinois when the roof was ripped off a home.

Eleven people were injured in North Carolina when strong winds demolished three homes, prompting tornado watches across the south-east US on Wednesday.

Forecasters at the Weather Channel said there had been 42 tornadoes on Tuesday and 14 on Wednesday.

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Amateur video and aerial footage show the tsunami-hit Mentawai islands

Relief efforts have been stepped up in Indonesia as three aid ships reached the worst-hit parts of the island chain devastated by Monday’s tsunami.

Rescue teams are now at work on North Pagai island in the remote Mentawai Islands off western Sumatra.

More than 340 people are known to have died. Hundreds are still missing.

Indonesia’s president has visited the islands, which were inundated after a 7.7-magnitude undersea earthquake triggered the tsunami three days ago.

President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono cut short a trip to Vietnam to oversee the rescue effort, flying in a helicopter loaded with food and other basic necessities to the remote and inaccessible islands.

There he met both survivors and local officials, promising the central government would help West Sumatra’s government to build temporary homes, health facilities and schools, his spokesman said.

Local officials say most of the villages hit by the tsunami have been reached, with victims from the worst-hit areas being buried in mass graves.

But almost 400 remain unaccounted for, and rescuers are now working on the assumption that a large number of those missing will not be found alive.

Although three aid ships carrying food, water, medical supplies and volunteers have now arrived in the disaster zone, bad weather and rough seas remain a major challenge to the relief effort, officials say.

Aerial images of the destruction taken from helicopters show some villages were simply washed away by Monday’s 3m (10ft) wave, while the scale of the damage in the worst-affected communities is slowly emerging.

On South Pagai, the hardest-hit island, two villages were completely destroyed, said Hendri Dori Satoko, chairman of the Mentawai legislative council. No houses, government buildings or medical facilities remained standing.

He said most people had been fast asleep when the tsunami struck.

“People who managed to escape went to the mountains,” he told the BBC. “Others are missing and presumed dead.

“Those who survived have nothing left except for the clothes on their body. They had to run and had no time to save their belongings.”

Some survivors have been evacuated to North Pagai by speed boat, and the Mentawai Islands district chief, Edison Saleleubaja, said work would continue through the night to evacuate the injured for treatment at health clinics.

The relief effort was limited, said Hartje Robert Winerungan, a spokesman for the National Disaster Management Agency, as helicopters and aid ships were taking hours to reach affected areas.

Many villages were simply washed away by the 3m (10ft) wave

“Some villages in the remote island can’t be reached so far,” said Mr Winerungan. “We’re working on it.”

Search teams have found bodies strewn along beaches and roadsides as they scour the islands, reports say.

However, many are still looking for their loved ones, even as the fear grows that they will not find them alive.

Many islanders were sleeping as the wave struck. Indonesian officials said locals had been given no indication of the coming wave, as a high-tech tsunami warning system installed in the wake of 2004’s giant Indian Ocean tsunami was not working.

Two buoys monitoring rising water levels off the Mentawai islands had been vandalised and were out of service, officials told the BBC.

But even a functioning warning system may not have provided sufficient warning, as the epicentre of the earthquake was so close to the Mentawai chain of islands that those living there had barely five or 10 minutes after the quake to make their escape to higher ground.

The vast Indonesian archipelago sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, one of the world’s most active areas for earthquakes and volcanoes.

More than 1,000 people were killed by an earthquake off Sumatra in September 2009.

In December 2004, a 9.1-magnitude quake off the coast of Aceh triggered a tsunami in the Indian Ocean that killed a quarter of a million people in 13 countries including Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand.

Sikakap hospital

Hundreds of injured survivors crowd into makeshift hospital; several villages nearby completely flattened

Macaronis resort

Villas destroyed; only the main building is still standing, which owner Mark Loughran said “saved everybody from being swept away”

Muntei Baru Baru

Entire village flattened – including 70 houses, a school and a church; Dozens of victims buried in mass grave

Sabeugungung

Village completely destroyed, with 50 reported dead and 150 missing

Bosua

Some 10 people reported dead and 80 houses destroyed

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Read the terms and conditions

At no time should you endanger yourself or others, take any unnecessary risks or infringe any laws. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name as you provide it and location unless you state otherwise. But your contact details will never be published.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.