LONDON, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - The British government published a report Monday laying out an 'economic roadmap' for the Palestinian territories which said kick-starting growth was crucial to establishing peace.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said giving moderates a stake in the Palestinian economy would increase the cost of descending into conflict.

'The Economic Aspects of Peace in the Middle East' analysed the necessary conditions for economic progress in the Palestinian territories.

PORTO, Portugal, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - British finance minister Alistair Darling called Friday for 'international action' to confront risks to stability in the banking sector after the bailout of major British mortgage lender Northern Rock.

'International action is needed to ensure that in the future we can reduce the risk of this sort of turbulence occuring again,' Darling said on the sidelines of a meeting of EU finance ministers in Porto, Portugal.

BERLIN, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - Germany on Friday said it saw no need for an emergency meeting of the Group of Seven wealthy nations over turmoil in world markets stemming from a crisis in the US home loan sector.

'In the view of the government, it is not necessary to schedule an extraordinary meeting,' a spokesman for the government in Berlin, which holds the rotating presidency of the G7, told reporters.

TOKYO, Aug 17, 2007 (AFP) - The Group of Seven industrialised nations have begun discussing measures to cope with plunging stock markets and wild foreign exchange fluctuations caused by US credit turmoil, a press report said Friday.

Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the United States are considering an emergency meeting of their finance ministers and central bankers to try to help stabilise the markets, Japan's Jiji Press said.

PARIS, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy called Thursday for the Group of Seven most industrialised nations to take steps to improve transparency in world markets.

In a letter to the current G7 chair, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Sarkozy said he was confident the fallout from turmoil in US credit markets would have no long-term effect on growth.

'I am convinced that these market movements will not lastingly affect the growth of our economies, which is strong,' he wrote.