Hey,
If you have register_globals enabled in the php.ini you can just use:
function func()
{
global $VAR1,$VAR2,...;
...
}
The whole point of $GLOBALS is that it is global in funcs,classes etc... with your example just use the vars with $GLOBALS["VAR1"].
And by the way, once globalised you can edit them, reset them and unset them...