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BRUSSELS A push by Poland's eurosceptic government to remove fellow-countryman Donald Tusk from one of the top jobs in the European Union failed to win any public support on Monday as EU foreign ministers met to discuss it in Brussels.

But Poland, which is also at loggerheads with Brussels over climate change, migration and its treatment of judges and the media, was signaling it would not budge - possibly setting the stage for a showdown at a summit of EU leaders on Thursday.

Tusk's first term expires this May and he enjoys the comfortable backing of most EU states to be reappointed for another 2-1/2 years as president of the European Council, responsible for chairing summits of EU leaders.

But Poland, where the head of the ruling party is Tusk's arch-foe, wants to oust Tusk from the influential post and replace him with another Pole, Jacek Saryusz-Wolski.

Many in Brussels dread opening another feud at a time when the bloc faces daunting challenges including handling the pending departure of Britain, facing up to an assertive Russia and getting to grips with new U.S. President Donald Trump.

But Poland's ruling party boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski is implacably opposed to Tusk, holding him "morally responsible" for the death of his twin brother, President Lech Kaczynski, in a plane crash in Russia in 2010, when Tusk was Polish prime minister. Polish and Russian probes blamed pilot error.

Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski, in Brussels for talks with his EU peers, said Warsaw was insistent on Saryusz-Wolski, a center-right European Parliament member.

"This is our candidate and he is in the game. This is the only Polish candidate right now for the post of the European Council head. There is no other Polish candidate," he said.

Over a Sunday dinner in Brussels, Waszczykowski had sought to persuade his peers from Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, as well as Belgium, Luxembourg and the Netherlands.

The leaders of four ex-communist eastern EU states met in Warsaw last week, but failed to agree on opposing Tusk together. The Czech minister, Lubomir Zaoralek, said on Monday that the easterners had much to lose.

"If there were other candidates, it could have a very unpleasant result... I am afraid that this can result in central and eastern Europe losing its representative, and I would consider that a serious mistake," he said.

The fact that the bitter political rivalry between Kaczynski and Tusk has spilled over to Brussels has raised many eyebrows in the European capital. Waszczykowski refused to say if any other country backed Saryusz-Wolski, and the other ministers did not offer any public support.

PANDORA'S BOX

A soft-spoken centrist, Tusk is widely seen in the EU as a safe pair of hands. The decision on whether to give him a new term is expected this Thursday. While unanimity would have been the preferred option, a majority vote is enough to keep him.

Waszczykowski suggested the decision could be delayed, but Zaoralek said that would risk opening a Pandora's box. No third candidate has emerged so far.

"There is a majority for Tusk, and pleasing Kaczynski is not on everyone's mind in Brussels," said a senior diplomat from one of the other states that took part in the Sunday dinner.

Another senior diplomat said agreeing to a third candidate to appease Poland, or delaying the decision beyond Thursday would be succumbing to blackmail.

"Whatever the cost at this stage, we need to get it over with as soon as possible," the person said.

But some diplomats and officials suggested Poland could decide to pick a fight on Thursday, possibly by broadening the talks to include EU climate policies. EU member states reached an early agreement on reforming the bloc's carbon market last week despite opposition from Poland, which wants to protect its economically important coal industry.

(Additional reporting by Philip Blenkinsop and Alissa de Carbonnel in Brussels, Robert Muller in Prague, Editing by Mark Trevelyan)

WASHINGTON President Donald Trump signed a revised executive order on Monday banning citizens from six Muslim-majority nations from traveling to the United States but removing Iraq from the list, after his controversial first attempt was blocked in the courts.

MOSUL, Iraq/BAGHDAD U.S.-backed Iraqi forces captured the second of Mosul's five bridges on Monday, giving a boost to their onslaught on Islamic State's remaining stronghold in the western part of the city.

AMMAN Syrian government forces have taken over positions from a U.S.-backed militia in the northern city of Manbij on part of a frontline with Turkish-backed rebel forces, in line with a deal brokered by Russia, the militia's spokesman said on Monday.

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Poland lacks backing in quest to unseat EU's Tusk - Reuters

VERSAILLES, France German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday said the European Union risked running into trouble unless it allowed members to participate at varying levels of intensity.

"We need to have the courage for some countries to go ahead if not everyone wants to participate. A Europe of different speeds is necessary otherwise we will probably get stuck," Merkel told a joint news conference with the French, Italian and Spanish leaders in Versailles.

"It needs to always be open for everyone - no one should be excluded but not everyone needs to be forced to participate in every project," Merkel added. "If Europe gets stuck and doesn't develop further, then this work of peace may run into danger faster than one might think."

(Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Michelle Martin; Editing by Andrea Shalal)

ISTANBUL/BERLIN Tayyip Erdogan's portrayal of a Germany mired in its Nazi past was calculated to infuriate Berlin while swaying Turks at home and abroad to vote "yes" to sweeping new presidential powers he seeks.

DUBLIN Ireland will widen an inquiry into former Church-run homes for unmarried mothers if needed, Prime Minister Enda Kenny said on Monday, calling the discovery of long-dead babies at one home "truly appalling".

WASHINGTON The United States is deploying an advanced anti-missile defence system to South Korea as part of steps to bolster its ability to defend against North Korean ballistic missiles, the White House said on Monday.

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European Union should be multi-speed or we might get stuck - Merkel - Reuters UK

Michael Fallon will urge the EU to cooperate more closely with Nato. Photograph: Steve Parsons/PA

The EU must not undermine Nato by recreating its military structures, the UK defence secretary will tell European leaders.

As the bloc aims to deepen its defence cooperation, EU foreign and defence ministers are expected to agree at a meeting on Monday to establish a small military command centre in Brussels to aid planning and conduct capability.

Arriving in Brussels before the meeting, Michael Fallon said he would be urging EU leaders to cooperate through the atlantic defence union. Today we are urging the European Union to cooperate more closely with Nato to avoid unnecessary duplication of structures and to work together on new threats, including the need to strengthen cybersecurity, he said.

The European commission president, Jean-Claude Juncker, is driving efforts to improve defence coordination among EU member states, with the aim of providing the bloc with strategic autonomy from its Nato allies, notably the US.

Weeks before Theresa May is expected to trigger article 50 negotiations, Fallon insisted Britain would continue to be a key military ally for the EU.

He said: Although we are leaving the European Union, we continue to cooperate with our European partners on defence and security and in the fight against terrorism and aggregation.

This month we are deploying troops to Estonia, later to Poland, and we are sending RAF jets to Romania. We also continue to play our part in the European mission in the Mediterranean, rescuing migrants and tackling people smuggling.

Britain vetoed similar plans for EU military structures in 2011 and 2013 but it is not expected to block the current proposals, which have to be agreed by all member states.

The EUs command control centre, due to be in operation this spring, will initially take charge of three existing EU military training missions in Mali, Somalia and the Central African Republic.

In a sign of the political sensitivities, however, countries are understood to have debated at length whether the head of the new body should be called a commander or director before opting for director as the more appropriate title.

Last September, Fallon prompted anger among EU member states when he vowed to veto any attempts to build an EU army, a proposal that has been backed previously by the commission president. He said then: That is not going to happen. We are full members of the EU and we will go on resisting any attempt to set up a rival to Nato.

Baltic states, in particular, have traditionally been nervous of the EU expanding its defence cooperation fearing the US will be pushed away. However, the election of Donald Trump to the White House has revealed the danger in the EUs reliance on the US at a time when it appears to be winding down its global reach.

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EU should avoid duplicating Nato, says Michael Fallon - The Guardian

Britain will "fight back" and not "slink off like a wounded animal" if finishes its negotiations with the EU without striking the deal it wants, the Chancellor Philip Hammond has said.

Mr Hammond told the BBC's Andrew Marr that Britain would "do whatever we need to do" including striking deals and building alliances with the rest of the world, to protect and drive the British economy if it were forced to face a future without a trade agreement with the EU.

Mr Hammond said: "If there is anybody in the European Union who thinks that if we don't do a deal with the European Union, if we don't continue to work closely together, Britain will simply slink off as a wounded animal, that is not going to happen.

"British people have a great fighting spirit and we will fight back. We will forge new trade deals around the world. We will build our business globally.

"We will go on from strength to strength and we will do whatever we need to do to make the British economy competitive and to make sure that this country has a great and successful future."

It has been suggested that this future might mean a low tax, low regulation, Singaporean style economy. Asked if the UK would cut corporationtaxes to attract investment away from the EU, the Chancellor said: "People can read what they like into it. I'm not going to speculate now on how the UK would respond to what I don't expect to be the outcome.

"But we are going into a negotiation. We expect to be able to achieve a comprehensive free trade deal with our European Union partners, but they should know that the alternative isn't Britain just slinking away into a corner."

Appearing later on Peston on Sunday, the Chancellor also faced questions over his article in The Sunday Times, in which he revealed plansto build up 60bn in reserves to deal with problems that could arise from Brexit over the next two years. Jeremy Corbyn yesterday said thatthe NHS and social care arein crisis and "the money's there" to deal with them. Mr Hammond said the problems with the NHS and social care were to do with an ageing population, and that it would be "reckless" simply to throw more money at it.

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Hammond: Britain will 'fight back' if no deal with the EU is reached - The Independent

Negative coverage of the European Union in British newspapers nearly doubled over the last 40 years, a study has found.

Researchers from Queen Mary University of London (QMUL)found negative coverage of the EU increased from 24 per cent to 45 per cent between 1974 and 2013, at the expense of positive and neutral coverage.

Positive coverage fell from 25 per cent to 10 per cent over the same period.

The study, published in the Journal of Common Market Studies,analysed16,400 newspaper articles during five periods from 1974 to 2013 duringwhich the EU washighly prominent in UK news.

Government suffers defeat in Lords over plan to begin Brexit negotiations

By individually analysing each newspaper, the authors showed negative coverage increased steadily fromthe mid-1970sto themid-2010s, a period in which centre-right tabloids increased their EUcoverage.

By the mid-2010s, 85 per cent of EU coverage in the Daily Mailwas negative, compared with less than 25 per cent in the mid-1970s.

Coverage of the EU in centre-right broadsheet newspapers such asThe TimesandtheFinancial Timesremained stable and tended to be factual and based on a pragmatic cost-benefitperspective, the study found.

The researchers said the study illustrates how a minority view can come to be accepted into the mainstream.

Dr Paul Copeland, senior lecturer at QMUL, said:While coverage across the 40 year period stays fairly stable in terms of volume, theres a significant increase of negative coverage in centre-right tabloids.

Our results show that with the exception of the Daily Mirror, the only counter-weight to the noisy and negative minority is factual and neutral reporting: good journalism, but not necessarily effective as a spirited public defence of the EU.

He added: What is interesting is that the noisy minority in the media is reflected so acutely in politics. The pro-European cause is made without passion or vigour.

It is the absence of a truly pro-EU faction that gives the impression that the UK is more Eurosceptic than it truly is. There are no real defenders of the EU to be found.

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Negative coverage of EU in UK newspapers nearly doubled in 40 years, study finds - The Independent