THE European Union today mounted a major display of political and economic solidarity with America.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw flew into Brussels for emergency talks with his EU counterparts, announcing that the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington had not only shaken the world, but changed it too.

Foreign ministers were due to debate Europe's own security and the question of tighter co-operation with America.

And there was no disguising a sense of helplessness over the latest, most devastating form of suicide terrorism.

Arriving for the talks, Mr Straw said: "It was an attack on all of us, as attack on freedom and democracy, on civilisation and humanity. That is the context in which we shall consider the matters.

"Then we shall look at the immediate security implications: are we doing sufficient to strengthen security in airports and transport facilities, in government and other public buildings?; do we have coordination between the different member states within the EU?

"And then the wider implications of course for the future, because this was an event which shook the world - it was also an event which changed the world."

Mr Straw said Prime Minister Tony Blair had already made clear Britain's full solidarity with America, and added: "It would neither be proper at this juncture nor appropriate for me to speculate on the precise kinds of support that we will be offering to the United States of America, as individual nation states and as members of the European Union."