STOCKHOLM, June 1 — Swedish Prime Minister Magdalena Andersson said today the Nordic country would continue its dialogue with Turkey over Ankara's objections concerning its application to join the Nato military alliance.

'I'm looking forward to constructive meetings with Turkey in the near future,' she told a news conference with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.

'Our responses to demands and also questions from Turkey we will take directly with Turkey and also sort out any issues and misunderstandings that there might be.'

Sweden and Finland both applied to join Nato last month but their bids have faced unexpected objections from Ankara which accuses them of being safe havens for Kurdish militants and wants them to reverse an arms exports ban. — Reuters

WASHINGTON, May 31 — US President Joe Biden said today he planned to meet with lawmakers in Congress about guns after a Texas elementary school shooting last week in which 19 children and two teachers were killed. — Reuters

BERLIN, May 31 —It is not clear yet whether the spread of monkeypox can be contained completely, the World Health Organisation said today, adding that its goal was to contain the outbreak by stopping human-to-human transmission to the maximum extent possible.

'Tools to manage it - including readily available diagnostics, vaccines and therapeutics - are not likely to be immediately or widely accessible to countries,' it said in a statement.

Over 20 countries where monkeypox is not endemic have reported outbreaks of the viral disease, with more than 300 confirmed or suspected infections mostly in Europe. — Reuters

PARIS, May 31 — French President Emmanuel Macron said that following a sixth European Union package of sanctions against Russia nothing could be ruled out in terms of additional sanctions in the coming weeks.

Speaking to reporters following an EU summit in Brussels, he also said he hoped that in the next days and weeks an agreement with Russia could be found for Ukrainian food exports, saying that recent talks between the Russian and Turkish presidents on the matter were a 'positive sign'. — Reuters

MADRID, May 31 — The latest European Union sanctions on Russia are 'not enough' and the pace of sanctions so far has been too slow, a senior official in Ukraine president's office said in a speech in Madrid today.

'If you ask me, I would say far too slow, far too late and definitely not enough,' Ihor Zhovkva, deputy head of President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's office, said.

European Union leaders agreed a new sanction package in Brussels yesteday. — Reuters

ANKARA, May 31 —Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said today that Ankara and Riyadh were in agreement for a visit by Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman to Turkey in the coming period, but no date had been set yet.

'Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman's visit to Turkey was actually going to happen this month, but we agreed to have it in the coming period,' Cavusoglu told state media, and added he was working on setting a date with his Saudi counterpart.

He added that efforts to normalise strained ties with Riyadh were moving fast. Ties between the regional rivals were strained after a Saudi hit squad killed Saudi journalist Jamal Khashoggi at the kingdom's consulate in Istanbul in 2018. — Reuters