LONDON, Sept 30, 2007 (AFP) - A credit crunch in global financial markets will limit growth in eastern Europe and former Soviet republics, the chief economist of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development has said, according to the Financial Times on Monday.

Citing a note he wrote to bank staff, the business daily reported that Erik Berglof said that the countries the EBRD invests in had 'weathered this turbulence in financial markets very well' because of strong past economic growth and market-oriented reforms.

KIEV, Aug 7, 2007 (AFP) - The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will donate 368 million euros to the programme to build a new sarcophagus around the Chernobyl reactor where the world's worst nuclear accident took place, Interfax-Ukraine news agency reported Monday.

It quoted Emergency Situations Minister Nestor Shufrych as telling a briefing in Kiev that an agreement would be signed with the EBRD on Tuesday.