A Belgian court will deliver its verdict on January 22 in the trial of an Iranian diplomat accused of plotting to bomb an exiled opposition group's rally, his lawyer told AFP.

Assadollah Assadi, a 48-year-old diplomat formerly based in Vienna, faces 20 years in prison if convicted of plotting to target the rally in Villepinte, outside Paris, on June 30, 2018.

An Iranian diplomat goes on trial in Belgium on Friday accused of plotting to bomb an opposition rally outside Paris, in a case that has stoked tensions with Tehran.

A 12-year-old girl confirmed infected with COVID-19 has died in Belgium, health officials said Tuesday.

Belgian meteorologists registered a record high temperature for the country on Thursday when western Europe sweltered under a heatwave that has severely disrupted transport.

Belgian prosecutors said Thursday they were looking for further suspects in an emerging terror investigation and feared a possible fresh attack as the country remained on high security alert.

Belgium has prevented six attacks over the past two years, a senior police official said Tuesday, with the country still a prominent target for jihadist assaults.

Belgium has conceded it cannot sign off on a landmark EU free trade deal with Canada because of continued objections from Wallonia and other regional leaders who rejected a late Monday deadline.

Belgium's foreign ministry summoned the Russian ambassador on Wednesday after Moscow claimed Belgian jets from the U.S.-led coalition killed six civilians in airstrikes near Syria's Aleppo, a spokesman said.

Belgium faces a growing crisis in its prisons, with the army called in to help and inmates stuck in their cells 24 hours a day as the government struggles to end a strike by prison staff.

"The situation has become unbearable, there is a lot of tension inside," said Vincent Spronck, the governor of Forest prison on the outskirts of the capital Brussels.

A Swedish suspect in the Brussels and Paris attacks has told investigators that he dumped the explosives that he carried onto the Belgian capital's metro system into the toilet, reports said Friday.

Osama Krayem, 23, doused the home-made TATP explosive that he had carried into Maalbeek metro station with water before trying to dispose of it in the lavatory of the apartment where the attackers were based, La Libre Belgique newspaper said.