The five-page "Berlin Declaration" hails the euro, calls for more regulation at European level and condemns "speculative capital movements". It advocates more power for Brussels.A draft of the document states: "We want to ... redefine the role of national parliaments, while simultaneously strengthening the European Parliament." Tony Blair discussed the meeting in a telephone call with Gerhard Schr?, the German Chancellor, yesterday.Mr Blair will not attend the conference so that he can concentrate on the general election, which he will announce next week The meeting comes at a sensitive time for Mr Blair. The Conservatives plan to exploit the Berlin agenda as evidence that he would take Britain into an "EU superstate" if Labour wins a second term.Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, will now represent Labour at the meeting, where he will be elected chairman of the Party of European Socialists. He will urge the meeting to tone down the draft to spare Labour's blushes during the election campaign.Mr Cook will try to persuade other socialist leaders not to call for the EU's charter of fundamental rights to be made legally binding during the next review of the EU's governing treaties.Although it falls short of advocating a "government of Europe", the Berlin Declaration is similar in tone to the controversial "Schr? paper". The two documents were overseen by Rudolf Scharping, Germany's Defence Minister and current chairman of Europe's loose organisation of Social Democrat parties.

But while the radical first paper is intended for domestic use, the Germans are touting the second draft as a compromise. The latest version was the result of four months of consultations with European comrades, including Labour, Mr Scharping said.. A British woman was killed, apparently by her own bomb, in Athens yesterday in what Greek police believe was an underworld plot that went wrong. A British woman was killed, apparently by her own bomb, in Athens yesterday in what Greek police believe was an underworld plot that went wrong. Susan-Mary Arris, a 48-year-old nightclub owner, died when the device exploded next to her in her car. Initial reports said her dog may have triggered the blast by playing with the detonator mechanism although police could not confirm that. The injured rottweiler was taken by police to an animal shelter, but was thought to have died later.Ms Arris's death has cast a little light into the dark corners of organised crime in the Greek capital, where a handful of "crime families" have been feuding for control of lucrative protection rackets.The car, a white BMW with British registration plates, was found with its windows blown out and a door open in the early hours of yesterday, in a deserted street in the Athens coastal suburb of Voula The area is known for its clubs, bars and seedy nightlife Inside the vehicle, police found Ms Arris dead.

She was wearing gloves and ear plugs and had lost most of the fingers of her right hand.The bomb had been placed near the handbrake and a remote-control device was found in a small black bag in the car, Greek police said.A police official said: "She apparently stopped to check the bomb and something went wrong This was not terrorism. It is clear it is a case of common crime." The bomb was a crude home-made device based on a hand grenade and using a child's electronic toy as the detonator. Similar devices have been used previously in revenge attacks between rival underworld gangs.There have been a number of bomb attacks against foreign targets in Greece by anarchist and left-wing groups, as well as assassinations by the group November 17, which claimed responsibility for the death of a British military attach?Brigadier Stephen Saunders, in June last year.The police official said that Ms Arris ­ who was born in London but had lived in Greece for decades ­ was connected to the Greek-American Grigorakos crime family, some of whose members have been charged with running a protection racket at Athens clubs.Ms Arris had been living in a house owned by the family and, when police visited it yesterday afternoon after discovering the car, they found hand grenades and bomb-making equipment. "Evidence shows she was connected to the underworld," a police official said.One of the Grigorakos family was shot dead in front of the Athens main court building about two years ago while he was awaiting trial A few months later his father was shot in his car. He died despite wearing a bullet-proof vest.Police are working on the theory that Ms Arris had been asked to fake a bomb attack against a house owned by the Grigorakos family, to help them in a forthcoming court case that involves allegations of violence in a feud between rival families in Athens.The Greek government has been battling to take action againstwell-entrenched protection rackets run by organised crime groups in Athens. The police minister has expressed his frustration with the lack of progress in the fight and with corruption in the police force.Many businesses, especially cabaret nightclubs, bars and restaurants, fall prey to such rackets.

One businessman in Athens, who owns a string of restaurants, said yesterday: "I pay them every month. I cannot go to the police ­ nothing good would come of that.". The political maverick Emma Bonino abandoned her six-day hunger and thirst strike against media discrimination yesterday, when doctors said that her life was at risk. The political maverick Emma Bonino abandoned her six-day hunger and thirst strike against media discrimination yesterday, when doctors said that her life was at risk.Ms Bonino ended her effort to change Italy's personality-driven general election campaign ­ which has been dominated by coverage of the front-runner and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi ­ into an issue-driven one.Speaking from her hospital bed in Milan, Ms Bonino, a former EU commissioner, said she had stopped her protest because "there is more talk and discussion on my physical conditions than on the health of democracy and on freedom, the issues that we [the Radical Party] have put on the agenda".She said she was prepared to fast again if small parties and serious issues were not given proper coverage by the media.

Her fast in the run-up to the 13 May electionhas revealed the superficiality of the campaign and the deep-seated fears of the two main coalitions ­ led by Mr Berlusconi and Francesco Rutelli ­ that smaller, independent parties could deprive them of a clear result. What appeared a month ago to be a pushover for Mr Berlusconi and his centre-right Casa delle Libert?oalition now seems a much closer race.Doctors persuaded Ms Bonino, the Radical Party candidate, to take some water on Wednesday night as she approached total dehydration. The slightly built 53-year-old had lost five kilograms since she stopped taking food or liquids last Friday. Her condition deteriorated further after a brief appearance by satellite on a prime-time talk show. The former European commissioner for human rights and consumer affairs, and veteran civil rights campaigner, has received expressions of solidarity from across the political spectrum. However, she said she wanted "to see facts not words", saying the campaign had become a pseudo-presidential contest between Mr Berlusconi and Mr Rutelli.