Vladimir Putin (r) in a meeting of business leaders at the Kremlin in Moscow on Tuesday.

MOSCOW, Dec. 12--President Vladimir Putin reassured business leaders Tuesday that Russia’s new state corporations would not become monopolies, and that the Kremlin had no plans to strangle the private sector.
Putin--who has boosted the government’s clout in key industries, including oil, in his eight years in power--told business leaders from the Russian Chamber of Commerce and Industry that the Kremlin does not intend to create “state capitalism“, AP reported.
Putin has established state corporations focusing on manufacturing, aviation, space and construction, saying a tight Kremlin grip on key industries is necessary to bolster the economy. But he assured business officials that state corporations would get less support in the future.
“We don’t plan to keep state corporations the way they are now,“ he said. “After the corporations are stable and standing on their feet, it would be good for them to work in the market,“ he said.
He also promised that the government would safeguard private enterprise and ensure that state corporations “do not strangle other businesses.“
Putin, who has faced criticism over Kremlin interference in the business world, said if state corporations monopolize certain market niches, the government will step in to protect smaller players. He did not elaborate.
At the same time, mammoth state-controlled companies such as natural gas monopoly Gazprom and oil giant Rosneft have expanded their presence in Russia and abroad.
Tuesday’s Kremlin meeting was attended by several top industry leaders, including the president of Russia’s Chamber of Industry and Commerce Yevgeny Primakov and the CEO of oil giant Rosneft, Sergei Bogdanchikov, AFP wrote.
Primakov, a former prime minister, listed two main dangers facing the Russian economy.
“One is young liberals teaming up with oligarchs to bring back the 1990s situation. The second is a part of the state apparatus teaming up with business to create a bureaucratic market society,“ Primakov told Putin. “I think you are against this and it should be resisted,“
he said.

LONDON, Dec. 12--European stock markets have opened lower, following falls in the US and Asia which came despite Tuesday’s US interest rate reduction.
The Federal Reserve’s cut from 4.5 percent to 4.25 percent had been expected by the markets. Many had hoped for a bigger reduction, BBC reported.
The Federal Reserve also warned about “the intensification of the housing correction and some softening in business and consumer spending“.
The Dow Jones fell 2.1 percent and the Nikkei in Tokyo closed down 0.7 percent. The technology-heavy Nasdaq fell 2.5 percent or 66.6 points to close at 2,652.4.
In London, the FTSE 100 closed down 1.2 percent, while the Dax in Frankfurt was down 0.8 percent and the Cac 40 in Paris fell 1.2 percent.
“The action on Wall Street was very much knee-jerk on the disappointment of not getting a 50 basis point cut,“ said Craig James at Commonwealth Securities.
The Federal Reserve’s latest warnings differ markedly from those made by Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke after last month’s interest rate cut, when he sounded a relatively upbeat note on the health of the US economy.
At that time, it was suggested that the greater risks came from inflationary pressures due to higher energy and food prices. But on this occasion, it warned that “recent developments, including the deterioration in financial market conditions, have increased the uncertainty surrounding the outlook for economic growth and inflation.“
“They left open the possibility of additional rate reductions,“ said Carl Tannenbaum, chief economist at LaSalle Bank. He expects the next cut could come as soon as January.
Meanwhile, oil prices dropped Wednesday in Asia on reports pipelines shut by an ice storm in the US Midwest had been restarted, and after the Federal Reserve cut a key interest rate less than many had hoped, AP wrote.
An ice storm that caused outages of key US oil pipelines helped drive oil prices up by more than $2 a barrel in the previous session. But Dow Jones Newswires reported that at least one of the pipelines had been quickly restarted and that three others soon would be.
Light, sweet crude for January delivery fell 65 cents to $89.37 a barrel in Asian electronic trading on the Nymex by midday in Singapore. The contract raised $2.16 to settle at $90.02 a barrel Tuesday.

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, Dec. 12--The Bank of the South launched on Sunday by several South American countries is an alternative to the IMF and brings fresh opportunity to the region, IMF director general Dominique Strauss-Kahn said Tuesday.
“I can understand the political idea,“ behind the bank’s creation, said Strauss-Kahn, a French former finance and economy minister. “It’s not a problem, it’s maybe an opportunity,“ he was quoted by AFP.
“There is no reason why another development bank couldn’t be useful,“ he added, stressing that the new bank’s activities are not exactly the same as the International Monetary Fund’s, since it will primarily deal with financing development projects.
The Bank of the South was the brainchild of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez in his campaign against the United States and international financial institutions like the IMF and World Bank, which he claims are tools of Washington.
“It might be less efficient or more efficient, we will see,“ Strauss-Khan said of the new regional bank.
The IMF chief was in Buenos Aires for Monday’s inauguration of Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, with whom he met, along with Argentina’s new Economy Minister Martin Lousteau.
Strauss-Kahn said Tuesday that Argentina should renegotiate its $6.5 billion debt with the Paris Club of international creditors without the IMF’s intervention.
But Strauss-Kahn, whose institution is partly blamed by Argentina for the South American country’s economic crisis of 2001, said he was willing to be an intermediary between the two sides.
“The best solution is to pursue a process that does not involve the International Monetary Fund,“ Strauss-Kahn told reporters after meeting Argentina’s new president, Cristina Kirchner.
“I can help, including by being an intermediary, but I am not an actor in this issue. I can only help resolve it,“ he said, stressing that the issue was “in the hands of Argentina and the Paris Club, not the International Monetary Fund.“
Argentina owes $6.5 billion to the Paris Club, which includes the United States, Japan and other developed countries in Europe.
The Paris Club requires that the IMF endorse any debt restructuring deal, but Argentina’s government rejects the IMF’s participation.

Trucks are stuck at a toll booth at the France-Italy border in Vintimiglia where Italian truck drivers started a five-day strike on Dec. 10 in protest to high fuel prices.

ROME, Dec. 12--Italy’s truck drivers defied a government order and continued to strike Wednesday, blocking highways outside cities and border areas in a protest that idled factories, left gasoline pumps dry and caused shortages of basic foodstuffs across the country.
Protesters in the third of a five-day walkout against high gasoline prices, long working hours and foreign competition showed no sign of heeding an order to return to work issued late Tuesday by the Transport Ministry, AP said.
Drivers could be fined and have their licenses revoked, while those engaging in violent behavior, like forcibly blocking ports and highway tollbooths, risk jail sentences of up to four years, the ministry said.
Italy’s transport minister ordered the end of the highly-disruptive strike, saying the move was necessary to protect the delivery of essential supplies.
Alessandro Bianchi issued the decree after talks broke down between unions and government on the second day of a planned five-day strike.
However, thousands of trucks still blocked the highways Wednesday morning and unions vowed to continue the strike as planned until Friday.
The protest left supermarket shelves empty as fresh produce like milk, meat, fruit and vegetables went undelivered.
Many gas stations across the country ran out of fuel earlier in the strike. In Rome, the few pumps still working attracted lines of dozens of cars, which spilled over into the streets causing further gridlock.
The unions are demanding greater financial help to compensate for the higher price of diesel.
“It is essential that we get back the increase in diesel oil prices,“ said the FAI union, one of seven that called the strike that began Monday.
The strike forced Fiat to temporarily lay off thousands of workers because of a lack of supplies at factories, and farm lobby Coldiretti said it was considering legal action to demand damages for the tons of perishable goods left rotting in warehouses.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Dec. 12--The European Union’s current account deficit grew to 16.3 billion Euros ($23.9 billion) in the third quarter of the year, according to EU data released on Tuesday.
The 27-nation bloc’s current account deficit was up from 14.6 billion Euros in the second quarter of 2007, though down significantly on the 24.6 billion Euros registered in the third quarter of last year, according to the first estimate from the EU’s Eurostat data agency, AFP reported.
The current account deficit, the broadest measure of trade in goods and services, thus fell 0.5 percent of the European Union’s gross domestic product in the third quarter of 2007, from 0.9 percent in the same period last year.

XIANGHE, China, Dec. 12--China and the United States warned each other Wednesday that their booming but tense trade relationship was under threat from protectionism, as they began two days of top-level economic talks.
Proposed US trade legislation was a particular risk, Vice Premier Wu Yi, the head of the Chinese delegation, told US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. “I am particularly concerned about the 50 or so protectionist China-related bills introduced in the US Congress,“ said Wu, the country’s highest-profile trade official, AFP reported.
“I need to be quite candid about this: If these bills are adopted, they will severely undermine US business ties with China,“ she said.
The third Sino-US Strategic Economic Dialogue, held an hour’s drive from Beijing, was expected to focus on China’s enormous trade surplus with the United States and the Chinese currency, which US critics say is undervalued.
“Obviously, to resort to trade protectionism and blame another country for the structural problems in the US economy is the wrong approach which would only harm the interest of the United States itself,“ she said.
The US trade deficit with China hit $23.8 billion in September, up 5.5 percent from August, according to the latest US figures.
Critics in the United States blame what they say is a wealth of unfair trade practices from China for the deficit, including keeping the currency, the yuan, at an artificially weak level.
“Whereas trade was once largely a source of stability in US-China relations, it has recently become a source of tension, and not only because of safety concerns,“ Paulson said. “Worries about the effects of foreign competition--through trade or through foreign investment--have led to a rise in economic nationalism and protectionist sentiments in both our nations,“ he said.
He warned against “short-term, politically expedient actions,“ arguing that neither side can “protect (its) way to further prosperity.“
Paulson also said China’s leaders should loosen the reins on the nation’s currency to better address internal issues such as “mounting inflation, growing asset bubbles and possible overheating.“
Reflecting the lingering tension, the US trade chief, Susan Schwab, told Congress in an annual report on Tuesday that China was failing to live up to its World Trade Organization commitments. In the report, Schwab cited “China’s shortcomings in observing basic obligations of WTO membership, as well as Chinese policies and practices that undermine previously implemented commitments.“

NUSA DUA, Indonesia, Dec. 12--Norway’s finance minister on Tuesday proposed a fresh plan to battle climate change by Auctioning off permits to emit CO2 and using the profits to help poor nations cope with global warming.
Kristin Halvorsen said that a global cap should be put on how much polluting greenhouses gases can be spewed into the atmosphere to help stabilize these emissions at a safe level.
That amount would then be divided up among the world, with individual countries agreeing to their own share.
A small amount of emissions would be held over and Auctioned to rich nations to help them meet their needs, the proceeds of which would help poor countries adapt to climate change, said Halvorsen.
“If you implement a quota system, you can withhold a small portion for Auction, and then maybe the UN or some other international organization gets the revenue from this Auctioning, and then finances adaptation for poor countries,“ Halvorsen told AFP.
She put her proposal to a forum of finance ministers and economic officials on the sidelines of a United Nations gathering looking to lay out a roadmap to deepen action against climate change.
She said the suggestion was well received, but added that the finance ministers meeting was only the start of a long process to hammer out economic solutions to one the biggest challenges facing the world today.
“One of the most important challenges of this conference ... is how to distribute money from the rich countries to the poor,“ she said.
Poor countries say that the industrialized nations--which climate scientists say were historically responsible for most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere--should pay for the knock-on effects around the world.
Under the present format of the Kyoto Protocol, there is no global ceiling on Carbon emissions.
Instead, industrialized countries that are parties to the 1997 accord agree to their own, individual, targets for pollution.

TRIPOLI, Libya, Dec. 12--Greece has proposed building a submarine pipeline to transport natural gas from Libya to the Mediterranean island of Crete, Libya’s Jana news agency reported on Tuesday.
The proposal was made by Greece’s deputy foreign minister, Petros Doukas, during a meeting in Tripoli with the chairman of the Libyan National Oil Co., Shokri Ghanem, Jana said.
Doukas and a delegation of Greek businessmen from the energy, transport, telecoms and tourism industries have been in Libya since Monday.
According to the NOC, Greece is a major importer of Libyan petroleum and derivatives, importing around $1.234 billion worth this year.