If approved by all EU members, a fund of 500 million Euros (494 million US dollars) will be set up in 2003 to provide faster aid to regions hit by such disasters, said Schroeder after a meeting here with EU Commission President Romano Prodi and the leaders of Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia.

The strongest flood in past 150 years swept through regions ofthe four countries last week. In Germany alone, at least 12 peoplehave been killed and 150,000 people have been homeless.

Besides the national disaster fund, EU had also agreed a series of measures to speed up and ease disaster relief, includingfaster handout of subsidies and cheaper fodder for flood-stricken farms, Schroeder said.

Schroeder also denied that Germany's budget deficit would exceed the three-percent limit, although Berlin had promised large-scale help for the eastern German states affected by the flood.

"What we discussed was in the framework of the stability pact," Schroeder said, referring to the Maastricht treaty on the European single currency Euro.

Prodi, who earlier toured cities in the flood-stricken German state of Saxony, said special lending arrangements were being set up by the European Investment Bank (EIB).

"We have to make clear that Europe is a Europe of solidarity,"he said.

(Xinhua News Agency August 19, 2002)