EU, JAPAN SUMMIT POSTPONED

BRUSSELS: European Union leaders have announced the indefinite postponement of a key summit with Japan intended to launch crucial free trade negotiations next week because of the mounting debt crisis in bankruptcy-threatened Cyprus. “It is with regret that we have decided to postpone next week’s EU- Japan summit,” EU Council and Commission heads Herman Van Rompuy and Jose Manuel Barroso said in a surprise statement late Friday. “The ongoing efforts to find a solution for the financial situation of Cyprus require our presence in Brussels,” the pair said, as three separate sources confirmed the staging of a face- to- face meeting of eurozone finance ministers on Sunday in Brussels.