Israel and Romania will sign a number of cooperation agreements during an unprecedented meeting of the two countries' Prime Ministers and cabinet members in Jerusalem on Thursday, the Romanian government said. 

The only known survivor of the October 1941 Odessa massacres of Jews, conducted by the Romanian army on the orders of pro-Nazi marshal Ion Antonescu, called on Bucharest Tuesday to ask for forgiveness for the crimes.

Dozens of Romanian Roma and Jews on Tuesday commemorated the start of the Holocaust 70 years ago, laying red carnations in memory of the thousands of victims of the pro-nazi Romanian regime.

A Jewish group on Tuesday urged Romania to change the definition of an anti-Semitic word included in a widely-circulated dictionary, saying it was "an expression of racism in its purest form."  

"We reaffirmed our country's position that a negotiated solution between the parties, with no unilateral solution, is the only way to ensure real and solid grounds for a lasting peace," said Romanian Prime Minister Emil Boc after a meeting Wednesday in Bucharest with his visiting Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu. 

Hundreds of Holocaust-era mass graves are scattered around Eastern Europe, scholars said Friday, urging authorities to protect them as they owed it to victims of World War II atrocities.

Survivors and descendants of Jews killed during the Iasi pogrom in Romania on Tuesday attended ceremonies  marking the 70th anniversary of one of the worst single Holocaust massacres.