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As talks continue in Washington between President Bush and the newly resurgent Democrats, there are further signs of shift in policy on Iraq. The White House has announced that on Monday President Bush will meet members of a commission, the Iraq Study Group, which has been drawing up recommendations for ending the conflict. Justin Webb reports from Washington.

The president is spending a lot of time at the moment meeting Democrats and according to his spokesman, the talks are proving to be cordial. Both sides are feeling their way, trying to judge how far to go in pushing their agendas, how much they need to compromise. On Iraq, the White House says it is open to new thinking, and on Monday the former Secretary of State James Baker will present some new thinking from his cross-party Iraq Study Group. Nobody here would be surprised if a real change of policy emerges soon.

The British Prime Minister Tony Blair has spoken of an urgent need to combat what he called the poisonous propaganda of Islamic extremists who radicalize young British Muslims. Mr. Blair said the threat of terrorism had built up over a long period of time and would last a generation. The Muslim Council of Britain said the Muslim community as a whole should not be held responsible for the actions of a few. In a separate development, the leader of the right-wing British National Party has been found not guilty of inciting racial hatred. The charges related to a BNP meeting at which he described Islam as a wicked, vicious faith.

One of the main refugee agencies in Sudan's Darfur region says it is pulling out because of what it calls repeated interference by the Sudanese authorities. The Norwegian Refugee Council, the NRC which says it's caring for 300,000 displaced people in Darfur, said the authorities had not responded to repeated requests for talks. Jens Mjaugedal is the head of NRC's international department.

We haven't yet got the necessary permissions, work permission and the residence permission for our staff, and this has been going on for tour talks almost two years, it's the fifth time we are kicked out of Darfur for the same reason. And our staff and we can't live in this limbo any more.

The United Nations is postponing its decision on the future status of the province of Kosovo until after parliamentary elections in Serbia are held in January. The UN special envoy for Kosovo Marti Ahtisaari made the decision after a meeting of the six-nation contact group overseeing talks on Kosovo's future and just hours after Serbia announced its election date. Kosovo, technically part of Serbia has been run by the UN since 1999 when NATO forced Belgrade to withdraw troops from the province. The Kosovo President Fatmir Sejdiu said the decision was disappointing.

We express deep regret at today's news from Marti Ahtisaari's office to postpone the presentation of proposals for the settlement of Kosovo status. We are especially concerned that this delay is connected to the announced parliamentary elections in Serbia. However, the Kosovo negotiating team firmly believes that the process of defining Kosovo status will lead to the creation of an independent and sovereign state of Kosovo.

You are listening to the World news from the BBC.

Russian and American officials say they've reached agreement on Russia's entry into the World Trade Organization. They plan to sign the agreement in Hanoi next week. Here's our economics correspondent Andrew Walker.

It's 13 years since Russia applied to join the predecessor to the World Trade Organization. Any member could insist on bilateral negotiation with country seeking to join. Russia's talks with the United States have been particularly arduous. American officials have a number of concerns, in particular, they see Russia as a country with a serious problem of copyright violation, music, films and computer software. They've sought stronger commitments that Russia will enforce laws against copyright piracy. It's been such an important issue for the US because so many leading companies especially in the film industry are American.

The Anglo-Russian oil company TNKBP says it has paid off a huge claim for back taxes by the Russian government. The Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin was quoted as confirming that the money had been paid. Some reports have put the sum involved at more than a billion dollars. TNKBP, which is owned by the British oil company BP and a number of Russian billionaires is developing a large gas field in the Russian Far East.

A court in France has sentenced the former captain of the national rugby team to 20 years in prison for killing his wife in front of friends at a barbecue in 2004. Marc Cecillon told the court that he was in despair at no longer playing top level rugby when he shot his wife Chantal five times at a party given by a friend.

BBC world news.