Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (l) stands beside his Chinese counterpart, Wen Jiabao, in Beijing during a welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of People on Monday.

BEIJING, Jan. 14--India’s prime minister called for expanding business opportunities with China in construction, education, financial services, and tourism in a speech Monday to business executives at the start of a state visit.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to China, the first by an Indian prime minister in five years, seeks to inject new vitality into the sometimes strained relationship between the two nations, whose booming economies are increasingly driving world trade, AP wrote.
Together, their population of nearly 2.4 billion accounts for one-third of humanity.
“Our two countries will need to work together to ensure that we contribute to ... the economic resurrection and the interrelations of Asia,“ he said at a business conference here.
Singh was due to meet with Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao later Monday following a formal welcoming ceremony at the Great Hall of the People, the hulking seat of the national legislature in central Beijing.
Representatives of some of India’s biggest companies attended the conference, including salt-to-software conglomerate Tata Group, steel maker ArcelorMittalSA, and Jet Airways, which is seeking to open service on a Mumbai-Shanghai-San Francisco route.
Singh said India was willing to work with China to simplify regulations and remove some trade barriers.
“Our two economies are becoming the engines of the economic growth and must use our natural and human resources, technologies and capital for the common benefit of our people of our region and indeed of the world as a whole,“ he said.
On Sunday, Singh met with members of the Indian business community, who complained about China’s $9 billion (6 billion euros) trade surplus with India and a lack of investment opportunities for Indian businesses in China, according to The Times of India daily.
Singh has presided over an unprecedented expansion in contacts between India and China since taking office in 2004, with bilateral trade growing to $37 billion (25 billion euros) last year. Direct flights have fueled growing numbers of visitors between the two countries.
The growing links come despite lingering suspicions dating from a short but bloody border war fought by the two in 1962 and the still-unresolved boundary dispute.
But India has expressed concern about China’s cultivation of relations with Myanmar, Pakistan and other Indian neighbors, while Beijing is believed to be watching developments in New Delhi’s increasingly close relationship with Washington.

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia, Jan. 14--French President Nicolas Sarkozy signed a series of bilateral accords with Saudi King Abdullah Sunday at the onset of his three-country tour of the region, and suggested France’s nuclear power commission pay the oil-rich country a visit.
In his third trip to the Middle East in three weeks, Sarkozy was met at the airport by the Saudi king and later initialed accords on education, vocational training, oil and gas, as well as political cooperation, AP reported.
Sarkozy’s delegation, which included several ministers and business leaders have negotiated a series of other lucrative investment deals but none have yet been signed.
“We can do better,“ said the president about the meeting, “we have to.“
Saudi Arabia is looking to invest in a number of sectors that France sees itself having unique experience including railway construction. Saudi Arabia is looking to build a TGV fast train link between the holy cities of Mecca and Medina as well as subway in the capital of Riyadh.
Sarkozy also offered Abdullah the services of France’s Atomic Energy Commission to explore the possibilities of a civil nuclear energy program in Saudi Arabia in the next few weeks.
France will also sign a nuclear cooperation accord with the United Arab Emirates during Sarkozy’s visit there Tuesday, the French leader told the pan-Arab daily Al-Hayat in an interview published last week.
The accord for cooperation in civilian nuclear activities, a first step toward building a nuclear reactor, would be the third France has signed recently with Arab nations, after Libya and Algeria.
“I have often said that the Muslim world is no less reasonable than the rest of the world in seeking civilian nuclear (power) for its energy needs, in full conformity with international security obligations,“ Sarkozy told the London-based Al-Hayat.
During a December visit to Egypt, Sarkozy expressed France’s willingness to assist Egypt in the nuclear field.
Building nuclear reactors for civilian use for these countries would mean lucrative contracts for France, which generates most of its own electricity from nuclear power.

NEW YORK, Jan. 14--European shares opened lower in Monday trading, as concerns continue about the state of the US economy.
In early trade, the UK’s main FTSE 100 index dropped 19 points to 6,183, while Germany’s Dax was 10 points lower and France’s Cac fell eight points, BBC wrote.
The losses were, however, much more limited that Friday’s sharp falls on Wall Street, when the Dow Jones index ended down 247 points.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index ended Monday down 178 points.
Sydney’s main ASX 200 index ended down 13.5 points at 5,980, while trading in Tokyo was closed for a public holiday.
Friday’s big falls on Wall Street came after growing signs that the US economy was slowing, with investment bank Goldman Sachs predicting a recession this year.
Confidence among investors was hit further last week after American Express said it was seeing higher levels of credit card defaults, and the department store group Tiffany issued a profit warning following weak sales.
Also last week, US Federal Reserve boss Ben Bernanke warned that the 2008 outlook for the US economy has worsened.
The slowdown in the US economy centers on the sharp slump in the housing market, which sparked last August’s global credit squeeze.
Many of the leading US banks have revealed multi-million dollar bad debts in the so-called sub-prime mortgage sector, and this has made them much less willing to lend to each other, as well as to businesses and consumers.

LONDON, Jan. 14--Gold and platinum prices powered Monday to fresh record highs as precious metals were supported by the weak US currency, traders said.
On the London Bullion Market, gold surged to an historic $911.10 per ounce and silver hit a 27-year peak at $16.59 per ounce, AFP reported.
On the London Platinum and Palladium Market, platinum jumped to a record $1,579.00 an ounce.
“Gold, silver and platinum have pushed to record levels this morning as the dollar dropped further amidst speculation the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates,“ said TheBullionDesk.com analyst James Moore on Monday.
The weak US dollar makes commodities priced in dollars cheaper for buyers using stronger currencies.
Traders also invest their cash in gold as they search for a safe haven in the face of concerns over the United States economy.
On Friday, gold had broken through $900 an ounce for the first time during trading in New York.
Earlier Monday, meanwhile, Hong Kong gold prices hit a record close above $900.
“There is blue sky ahead of us and there is room for gold to go higher. We are in an uncharted territory, really,“ said Darren Heathcote of Investec Australia in Sydney, Reuters wrote.
“We have a weaker dollar and that’s encouraged people to buy gold.“
“I can see there’s some short-covering here and there,“ said Ronald Leung, director of Lee Cheong Gold Dealers in Hong Kong. “Nobody knows what the next target is--$910, or $920 and even $950. We don’t know. There’s short-covering everywhere.“
The euro jumped to $1.4880 on electronic trading platform EBS, its highest level since late November and within sight of a record high of $1.4968 hit that month.
“Dealers just don’t sleep nowadays. Gold broke $900, and there was buying on breakout. It was very, very fast,“ said a dealer in Singapore. But some dealers said gold could have trouble staying above $900 as high prices were likely to turn away jewelry makers and other physical buyers.
“I still think it’s not sustainable. The physical sector is not too enthusiastic to purchase here,“ said William Kwan, a dealer at Phillip Futures in Singapore. “On the speculative side, the small speculators have already gotten out of their shorts,“ he added.

FRANKFURT, Germany, Jan. 14--Two years of solid economic growth and a spike in oil and food prices are driving demands for hefty pay rises in the eurozone, which the European Central Bank and businesses warn could backfire.
Wages have risen modestly since 2000, but oil and food prices shot up late last year and third-quarter business profits posted their biggest quarterly rise since early 2001, according to the Swiss bank UBS, AFP reported.
Germany, the biggest eurozone economy, has seen a “virtual stagnation in real disposable income“ while other countries posted gains and employment finally took off, said Holger Schmieding, senior economist at the Bank of America.
Average wages grew by 5 percent in the past seven years, “and on top of that we had employment growth,“ long a weak point of the now 15-nation economy, Schmieding added.
Inflation averaged around 2.1 percent, he said, before leaping to 3.1 percent in November and December.
Lower unemployment has strengthened trade unions’ hands, but the European Central Bank insists it will not tolerate “second round“ inflation from further increases in prices and wages.
Most observers agree pay increases must be matched by higher productivity to avoid fueling inflation, while business groups add that excessive wage deals discourage companies from hiring more workers.
“Employment recovery in Europe over the last decade has been a major factor of growth, it would be a very big change if it stops,“ said Marc Stocker, economic director at BusinessEurope, a group of employer federations from 33 countries.
Economic activity has already begun to slow owing in part to the euro’s strength against foreign currencies, high oil prices and tighter financial conditions caused by the US housing crisis.

ALMATY, Kazakhstan, Jan. 14--Kazakhstan has ended a long-running conflict with a group of top Western oil majors over ownership of the Kashagan oil field, one of the world’s largest new deposits, state oil company Kazmunaigas said Monday.
Kazmunaigas “is pleased to announce that agreement has now been reached with the entire Kashagan consortium,“ the company said in a statement.
After six months of fraught negotiations, the deal boosts Kazmunaigas’ stake in the field to a level “equal to that of the largest shareholders,“ the statement said, without providing figures, AFP wrote.
“With this successful end to the long and difficult negotiations which began last August, the way forward for the Kashagan Project has been found,“ the statement said.
Since August the Kazakh government has been demanding a bigger stake for Kazmunaigas to make up for extensive delays and cost overruns it blamed on the foreign partners.
With the biggest oil reserve found in the world since the 1960s, the offshore Caspian Sea field has long been seen by the Kazakh government as key to its plans to become a top global oil exporter.
Previously, Italy’s ENI, France’s Total, US ExxonMobil and Dutch-British Shell each held an 18.52-percent stake.
ConocoPhillips, also of the United States, owned 9.26 percent while Japan’s Inpex and Kazakh state energy company Kazmunaigas each held 8.33 percent.
US business daily the Wall Street Journal on Monday quoted a source close to the negotiations as saying that ENI, Total, ExxonMobil and Shell would now see their stakes fall to 16.6 percent, while Kazmunaigas’ stake would rise to the same level.
The paper said Kazmunaigas had paid $1.78 billion (1.2 billion euros) to increase its stake.
The partners will now “draft and execute the appropriate amendments“ to the production sharing agreement, while operations will proceed under the new ownership structure, Kazmunaigas said in its statement.

SEOUL, South Korea, Jan. 14--An independent team investigating bribery allegations against South Korea’s Samsung group has searched the house and private office of its chairman Lee Kun-Hee, Yonhap news agency reported.
Houses of senior executives were also searched, the agency said. A Samsung spokesman refused to comment.
The probe launched last week by an independent counsel follows claims by Samsung’s former chief lawyer that it created a multi-million-dollar slush fund to bribe prosecutors, government officials and journalists.
Samsung, which wields enormous influence in South Korea, has denied the claims and said it was concerned the probe was hurting its reputation.
The group’s assets are valued at $280.8 billion and its exports were worth $66.3 billion last year, more than 20 percent of the nation’s total.
Investigators searched Lee’s house, which doubles as his private office, early Monday, Yonhap quoted sources as saying.
The sources said prosecutors also raided the houses of vice chairman Lee Hak-Soo and two other senior executives. The chairman and the executives are currently banned from leaving the country.

A Toyota Motors hybrid vehicle is plugged into a recharging machine owned by French state-owned electricity giant Electricite de France in this file photo.

DETROIT, USA,
Jan. 14--Toyota Motor Corp. will produce a small fleet of plug-in hybrids by 2010, the Japanese automaker’s chief said Sunday. The plug-in hybrid will go head-to-head with US rival General Motor Corp’s Chevy Volt, which is also expected to hit the road in 2010, AFP reported.
The test fleet of plug-in hybrids is part of a broader environmental sustainability plan, Toyota president Katsuaki Watanabe announced at the Detroit auto show.
Toyota also plans to introduce two all-new dedicated hybrids at next year’s Detroit auto show, one under the luxury Lexus brand and the other under the Toyota mark. They will be based on the same technology which runs Toyota’s popular Prius. “These two introductions will move us closer to our goal of selling a million hybrids per year in the next decade,“ Watanabe said. Toyota is also planning on introducing clean-diesel versions of its Tundra pickup and Sequoia full-sized sports utility vehicle to the US market “in the near future“, he said.
Toyota is also working on developing cleaner and more efficient methods of producing ethanol from wood-waste rather than food crops, he said.
General Motors, which currently produces more than a million flex-fuel vehicles a year, also announced plans Sunday to develop more efficient biofuels.
It has partnered with an Illinois-based company, Coskata Inc., which will open a test plant in the fourth quarter of this year capable of producing ethanol from practically any renewable source, including garbage, old tires and plant waste.
Meanwhile, chief of the Japanese automaker Honda Motor said Sunday that hybrid vehicles would account for 10 percent of Honda Motor’s global sales by 2010 as the company focuses on increasing fuel efficiency and reducing carbon monoxide emissions. “The challenge to create the most fuel efficient products for our customers and the environment will continue as a central focus of our product development efforts,“ Honda president Takeo Fukui said at a press conference at the Detroit auto show. “At Honda, we believe this challenge cannot be met with a single technology.“.