Convoys with hundreds of angry farmers driving heavy-duty tractors created chaos outside the European Union's headquarters on Thursday, demanding leaders at an EU summit provide relief from rising prices and bureaucracy.

Farmers pelted police in the Belgian capital with firecrackers, eggs and beer bottles through thick smoke from burning bales of hay, and security forces used water cannons to douse fires and keep a farmer from felling a tree on the steps of the European Parliament.

Inflation in Europe edged lower in January to 2.8%, keeping alive speculation about quick interest rate cuts that would lower borrowing costs for businesses and consumers — and help boost the stagnating economy.

The annual figure released Thursday by the European Union statistics agency Eurostat compares with 2.9% in December and matched what was expected by market analysts.

The U.S. has slapped sanctions on three companies and one person in Lebanon and Turkey, accusing them of funneling funds to Iran's Revolutionary Guard and Hezbollah.

The U.S. Treasury announced sanctions on Turkish company Mira Ihracat Ithalat Petrol (Mira), which it said "purchases, transports, and sells Iranian commodities on the global market;" on its chief executive, Ibrahim Talal al-Uwayr; and on Lebanon-based Yara Offshore SAL and Hydro Company for Drilling Equipment Rental, both of which it said have sold large quantities of Iranian goods to Syria.

Farmers blocked more traffic arteries across Belgium, France and Italy on Wednesday, as they sought to disrupt trade at major ports and other economic lifelines. They also moved closer to Brussels on the eve of a major European Union summit, in a continued push for better prices for their produce and less bureaucracy in their work.

The protests had an immediate impact on Wednesday, as the EU's executive commission announced plans to shield farmers from cheap exports from wartime Ukraine and allow farmers to use some land that had been forced to lie fallow for environmental reasons.

Lebanon’s gasoline, diesel and gas importing companies announced overnight that they would be suspending the delivery of fuel to distributors as of Wednesday morning as well as importation operations, in protest at parliament’s decision to impose an extraordinary tax on the companies that “imported subsidized goods in 2020 and 2021.”

Urging “solutions,” the importers said they would be willing to reopen and supply the market with fuel, even on Sundays, when the issue gets resolved.

Europe's economy failed to expand at the end of 2023, with the stagnation now lasting for more than a year amid higher energy prices, costlier credit and lagging growth in powerhouse Germany.

Zero economic growth for the October-to-December period of last year follows a 0.1% contraction in the three months before that, according to figures released Tuesday by EU statistics agency Eurostat.

With protesting farmers camped out at barricades around Paris, France's government hoped to calm their anger with more concessions Tuesday to their complaints that growing and rearing food has become too difficult and not sufficiently lucrative.

Attention was focusing on an address that new Prime Minister Gabriel Attal was to give in the afternoon to France's lower house of parliament, laying out his government's priorities.

Saudi Arabia's oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday it will not try to increase its maximum daily oil production to 13 million barrels a day after receiving an order from the country's Energy Ministry.

The firm, known formally as the Saudi Arabian Oil Co., said it would maintain its maximum output at 12 million barrels a day.

European Union nations have decided to approve an outline deal that would keep in reserve the profits from hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian central bank assets that have been frozen in retaliation for Moscow's war in Ukraine, an EU official said.

The tentative agreement, reached late Monday, still needs formal approval but is seen as a first step toward using some of the 200 billion euros ($216 billion) in Russian central bank assets in the EU to help Ukraine rebuild from Russian destruction.

Almost two years after Russia invaded Ukraine, the war has ground to a virtual stalemate. Ukraine desperately needs support to keep its economy afloat, but political infighting in the European Union and the United States are depriving it of the financial lifeline it needs.

As Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban continues to oppose a 50 billion-euro ($54 billion) support package for Ukraine, other EU leaders are losing patience.