Forty flights to Brussels' main airport had been cancelled as of 0800 GMT.

"It's still snowing very heavily at this moment, but we expect that this will reduce later this morning, and by noon normally we should be back to more or less a normal situation," said an airport spokesman.

"A new snow front could arrive here in the afternoon, but it's too soon to tell."

Flights were running normally at Belgium's low-cost airport in Charleroi, in the south of the country, a spokesman said.

The high-speed Thalys rail service between France, Belgium, Germany and the Netherlands said on its website that snow had delayed services and advised travellers to delay their trip.

Up to eight centimetres (three inches) of snow has fallen across Belgium since the early hours of Friday, according to the Belgian Royal Meteorological Institute. (Reporting By Ben Deighton; Editing by Jon Boyle)

• A Permanent Economic Emergency