TEHRAN, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Iran warned France it was prepared to go ahead with a major gas project with Total using Iranian firms alone if the French oil giant gives in to political pressure and does not swiftly implement the deal.

'I have a message for French President (Nicolas) Sarkozy,' Caretaker Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari told reporters late on Wednesday.

'If Total does not come here, right here, the Pars LNG contracts will be handed over to capable Iranian hands for them to carry out,' he said.

DOHA, Sept 27, 2007 (AFP) - Qatar's grab of a slice of the London Stock Exchange and its bid for British supermarket chain Sainsbury's underline the tiny Gulf state's ambition to become a global economic player and diversify revenues despite its vast gas wealth.

'There is a clear Qatari quest to diversify sources of revenue to secure the future of the next generations, in anticipation of the depletion of energy resources,' economist Bashir al-Kahlut told AFP.

SHANGHAI, Sept 18, 2007 (AFP) - China will step up monitoring of local governments in a bid to curb overly rapid investment growth and help avoid economic overheating, state press said Tuesday.

There is a risk fixed assets investments will rebound in the second half as local governments are keen to launch new projects to boost growth, the China Securities Journal said, citing the National Development and Reform Commission.

KINSHASA, Sept 17, 2007 (AFP) - China signed a deal here Monday to loan the mineral-rich Democratic Republic of Congo five billion dollars (3.6 billion euros) to build up infrastructure and develop its mining industry.

Three billion dollars will build 2,000 miles (3,200 kilometres) of railway between Sakania in the south and Matadi in the west, as well as a 2,000 mile road linking Kisangani in the northeast and Kasumbalesa in the south.

BEIJING, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - China's spending on plants and other fixed assets picked up in August, the government said Friday, rounding off a week of bullish data that dramatically raised expectations of more interest rate hikes.

China's urban fixed asset investment rose 26.7 percent in the first eight months of 2007 compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics reported. Economists said this implied a 27.3 percent rise in August alone.

BEIJING, Sept 14, 2007 (AFP) - China's urban fixed asset investment rose 26.7 percent in the first eight months of 2007 compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Friday.

The bureau did not give a figure for August alone, but it seemed to have picked up slightly during the month, given a 26.6-percent growth rate for the first seven months.

Overall urban fixed investment -- a much-observed measure of government spending on infrastructure projects -- for the period was 6.67 trillion yuan (890 billion dollars), the bureau said in a statement.

WASHINGTON, Sept 11, 2007 (AFP) - Texas energy group TXU Corp. said Tuesday that US regulators had given final approval to two private equity groups and other investors to proceed with their record 45-billion-dollar buyout.

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission's approval of a TXU buyout marks a triumph for Kohlberg Kravis Roberts and Texas Pacific Group, but the private equity titans may face a tough fight stitching together the deal's hefty financing.

BEIJING, Sept 10, 2007 (AFP) - China's finance ministry announced Monday it will sell 200 billion yuan (25.6 billion dollars) in special treasury bonds this year as part of efforts to fund the nation's new sovereign wealth fund.

Half of the special treasury bonds will be auctioned to banks and individual investors this month, while the remaining 100 billion yuan worth will be sold before the end of the year, the ministry said on its website.

WASHINGTON, Sept 7, 2007 (AFP) - TXU Corp. shareholders overwhelmingly endorsed a 32-billion-dollar buyout of the Texas energy group Friday by two big private equity firms and other investors.

The Dallas-based utility and energy group said shareholders holding over 74 percent of TXU stock voted in favor of the blockbuster deal.

The buyout still needs to be approved by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, but TXU hopes to finalize the change of ownership later this year.

DUBAI, Sept 4, 2007 (AFP) - State-owned Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which is reportedly interested in buying almost a third of the London Stock Exchange, said Tuesday it was considering expanding in Asia.

'What we are looking to do is to increase the exposure (in Asia), but not necessarily at the expense of building things up in the US or Europe,' QIA's Head of Strategic and Private Equity Kenneth Shen, told reporters on the sidelines of the China-Middle East Investment Forum in Dubai.

DUBAI, Sept 3, 2007 (AFP) - Greater investment between the Middle East and China is being hampered by a lack of understanding between the two cultures, a conference in the United Arab Emirates heard on Monday.

The warning came despite trade between the two doubling since the year 2000 and projections of massive investment by some Middle Eastern states in Asia over the next five years -- with most of that money going to China.

DUBAI, Aug 29, 2007 (AFP) - The Gulf emirate of Dubai is making headlines with a series of high-profile investments abroad in everything from aircraft builders to Las Vegas casinos, but some deals are financially risky and could even spark a protectionist backlash, economists say.

Dubai has been snapping up foreign assets in tandem with a vigorous drive to turn the thriving city state into a global business and leisure hub hosting the world's tallest skyscraper and palm-shaped artificial islands.

PARIS, Aug 26, 2007 (AFP) - After fleeing over the past few weeks to the bond markets due to the crisis in the subprime sector in the United States, investors last week cautiously started returning to shares.

The rebound on the world stocks markets since August 17 following market intervention by the US Federal Reserve has demonstrated that shares are again favoured by investors.

'Last week people bought shares again,' said Roland Lescure, an analyst at Groupama Asset Management.

However he said what was taking place was a 'rebound, not a (lasting) revival.'

SEOUL, Aug 24, 2007 (AFP) - A South Korean food processing firm said Friday its executives would visit North Korea next month to finalise a project to set up chicken farms in the communist country.

Maniker, South Korea's second-largest chicken processing company, said that if the joint venture is approved, it would be the first direct investment by South Korean firms outside a Seoul-funded industrial estate in Kaesong.

DUBAI, Aug 22, 2007 (AFP) - A Dubai government investment firm said Wednesday it will spend around five billion dollars for a 9.5 percent stake in the MGM Mirage entertainment company and half of its CityCenter development in Las Vegas.

Dubai World said in a statement it had reached an agreement in which it will pay up to 2.4 billion dollars for up to 28.4 million MGM Mirage shares.

The firm said it will also pay 2.7 billion dollars for a stake in MGM Mirage's multi-billion dollar retail and leisure complex planned to be completed in late 2009.

JAKARTA, Aug 20, 2007 (AFP) - Japan is planning investments worth up to seven billion dollars in Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest economy, over the next five years, one of their business representatives said Monday.

'More than 800 billion yen or seven billion dollars of total investment is planned over the next five years,' Fujio Mitarai, chairman of the Japan Business Federation, said in a speech delivered in front of visiting Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Indonesian President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

BEIJING, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - China's economy marched along at a fast pace in July, official data confirmed on Thursday, heightening expectations of another interest rate hike within weeks.

China's urban fixed asset investment -- a key measure of government spending on infrastructure projects -- rose 26.6 percent in the first seven months of 2007 compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said.

BEIJING, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - China's urban fixed asset investment rose 26.6 percent in the first seven months of 2007 compared with a year earlier, the National Bureau of Statistics said Thursday.

Overall urban fixed investment -- a key measure of government spending on infrastructure projects -- for the seven months was 5.67 trillion yuan (748 billion dollars), the bureau said in a statement.

The real estate sector outpaced general investment, rising 28.9 percent to be worth 1.21 trillion yuan for the period.

MOSCOW, Aug 16, 2007 (AFP) - Russia is set to invest up to two billion dollars in Kyrgyz economic projects, Russian President Vladimir Putin said late Wednesday during talks on the sidelines of the annual summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

'We are ready to formulate an economic situation which would allow us to effectively invest a large sum in Kyrgyz economy, I mean investment of up to two billion dollars,' Putin was quoted by the RIA Novosti news agency as telling his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

FRANKFURT, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - The German mutual fund Union Investment has frozen one of its funds that has come under pressure from the US at-risk mortgage crisis, a group executive told the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

The group decided last week to impose a temporary halt to withdrawals from the fund to stop a capital flight. In the past month nearly 100 million euros (137 million dollars) have been withdrawn.

'It's a question of protecting investors,' said Union Investment administrator Nikolaus Sillem.

SINGAPORE, Aug 2, 2007 (AFP) - State-linked Singapore investment firm Temasek Holdings said Thursday net profit fell 29 percent in the year to March, partly because of the impairment of its investment in Thailand's Shin Corp.

Net profit in the year to March 31 was 9.1 billion dollars (6.0 billion US), down from 12.8 billion dollars a year ago.

Revenues declined to 74.6 billion dollars from 79.8 billion dollars the previous year, Temasek said.

ALGIERS, July 31, 2007 (AFP) - Algeria will invest 20 billion dollars (14.5 billion euros) in the next two years to further develop its burgeoning oil and gas industries, Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil said Tuesday.

'We have finalised two projects, the first with (French firm) Total and the second with Armalt (an international consortium) and we have four to five other petrochemical projects we hope to finish by 2008,' he told reporters.

The investments in all these projects will be around 20 billion dollars, he said.

SHANGHAI, July 27, 2007 (AFP) - Insider trading and other illegal share activities are becoming rampant amid China's stock market frenzy, prompting a crackdown by authorities, state press reported Friday.

Forty-six people have been banned this year from investing on the stock market, while 16 listed companies and two brokerage firms have been fined, all for illegal trading activities, the China Daily said, citing regulators.

DUBAI, July 26, 2007 (AFP) - A Dubai government firm is set to aquire full ownership of a Singaporean shipyard for around 430 million US dollars, the company said on Thursday.

'Dubai World`s global shipyard operator, Dubai Drydocks World... is preparing to exercise its option to aquire 100 percent ownership of... Pan United Marine,' the company said in a statement.

Dubai World already owns more than 90 percent of Pan United Marine and will exploit its right to buy the remaining shares through a compulsory acquisition clause, the statement said.

DUSHANBE, July 24, 2007 (AFP) - The central Asian state of Tajikistan has decided to open its financial market to foreign banks, having kept them at arms length for years, in a move hailed by the World Bank.

Central Bank chief Murodali Alimardonov said Tuesday the first operating licence was being awarded to the Kazakh bank Kazkommertsbank.

'Three other foreign banks will receive their licences in the coming months,' he said, adding that one would be a Qatar-based investment fund.