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Japan and China have agreed that they will not tolerate a nuclear test by North Korea. The statement came at the end of a one-day summit between the new Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and the Chinese leadership in Beijing. Mr. Abe said China and Japan had reached a solid agreement on North Korea.

We can never tolerate a nuclear weapon test by North Korea, and in this summit meeting today we saw eye-to-eye on this issue that both countries cannot tolerate this. We think that it sent a strong message to North Korea.

China has described Mr. Abe's visit as a turning point in relations. And Chinese leaders have accepted in principle an invitation to visit Japan. Shinzo Abe also expressed remorse for Japan's wartime record, saying it will never forget the enormous damage and pain that it caused in Asia.

The Iraqi parliament has voted for the first time to lift the immunity of one of its members so he can be prosecuted on corruption charges. M, who heads a small Sunni party, is accused of siphoning off the equivalent of 75 million dollars a month, mostly from funds meant to provide security for Iraq's oil pipelines. Jam Mill reports from Baghdad.

The man who provoked this unprecedented move by parliament is M, a Sunni Muslim tribal leader and businessman who heads a small group holding three seats in parliament. Allegations that he was engaged in corrupt practices began to gather pace when he was caught at Baghdad Airport earlier this year, carrying hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash. According to the head of the parliamentary integrity commission, he was siphoning off the equivalent of 75 million dollars a month. Most of the money's believed to have come from funds for a force to protect the country’s oil pipelines, which he was in charge of.

Moscow's prosecutor general has taken personal charge of the investigation into the killing of the Russian campaigning journalist Anna Politkovskaya. She was shot dead on Saturday. Her death has drawn international condemnation. Ms. Politkovskaya was a fierce critic of President Putin and the war in Chechnya and had accused the security forces of the Moscow back Chechen administration of widespread human rights abuses. The Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov described her killing as a great tragedy. The Kremlin has made no comment.

You're listening to the world news from the BBC.

Early returns from local elections in Belgium indicate a strong show of support for the Flemish Separatist anti-immigration party Vlaams Blan. The party is already claiming a resounding victory in Flanders ,the richer Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Johnny Diamond reports from Brussels.

Vlaams Blan appeals in equal measure to Flemish pride, a growing in tolerance of immigration and crime and the protests vote. That appeal has paid off in town after town across Flanders.Vlaams Blan has registered strong gains. One in five of the Flemish population voted for it. The party's Chairman described the results as spectacular. But less impressive was it showing in Antwerp, its heartland; there it failed to improve its share of the vote. Instead, the Socialists made strong gains.

France is to ban smoking in public places from next February, apart from cafes, nightclubs and restaurants, which haven't until 2008 to come into line. Announcing the measure, the French Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said people could still smoke on the street but lighting-up in businesses, stations and shops will be forbidden. Those who flouted the ban will be fined. Although France has a long tradition of tobacco use, opinion polls indicate that 70% of people are in favor of a ban.

The South African President Thabo Mbeki is reported to have made a stinging attack on his party's allies in the Communist Party. Speaking at an African National Congress meeting, President Mbeki accused the Communists of extraordinary arrogance, and said their secretary general openly despised the ANC. The Communists have attacked government policy as capitalist and hopelessly inadequate at addressing the needs of South Africa’s poor. But the Communist Party Secretary General Bladon Zemandy denied President Mbeki's claims.

We are in particular rejected that. On our side we are of the view that we must not allow matters that are a challenge to their alliances to prepare for their alliance. We've got remain challenge of their alliances to save our constituency.

The British Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has openly disagreed with a Cabinet colleague of whether Muslim women in Britain should wear veils to cover their faces. Mr. Prescott said women who wanted to wear a veil should be free to make that choice. Last week the former foreign secretary Jack Straw described the veil as a visible statement of separation, which he said hindered interaction between neighbors.