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Iran
to Increase Exports of Jet Fuel
 TEHRAN (FNA) - Iran plans to boost export of jet fuel
supplies produced in its Southern port city of Bandar Abbas
to the neighboring countries in the near future, a senior
oil ministry official said.
Deputy Oil Minister Alireza Zeiqami said Friday the country
will soon increase the exports of jet fuel to its
neighboring countries by launching a pipeline carrying the
product.
The 12.5 kilometer long pipeline, aimed at increasing the
exports of jet fuel will come on stream in Bandar Abbas, the
provincial capital city of Hormozgan province in February.
He added that the pipeline is part of a project, which aims
to boost the transfer of oil products at Shahid Rajaei and
Foulad docks, and said once the project becomes operational
the country's loading capacity of oil products in the
Persian Gulf will increase.
Earlier in October, Zeiqami said the jet fuel production
line has come on line in Bandar Abbas oil refinery for the
first time and has successfully passed its testing phase and
fuel production is currently underway.
"The initial steps for exporting jet fuel supplies and its
shipment have been coordinated in a bid to show another
proof of the independence of the Islamic Iran to the world
people," the official added.
In a relevant remarks in September, Managing Director of the
National Iranian Oil Refining and Distribution Company
(NIORDC) Jalil Salari said that work is well underway to
prepare for the launch of the pipeline carrying jet fuel for
exports.
He said a number of neighboring and East Asian countries
have expressed willingness to buy Iranian jet fuel.
Bandar Abbas refinery
Int'l Forum on Investment
Opportunities
TEHRAN (FNA) - A senior Iranian official announced that the
country is due to hold an international forum on investment
opportunities of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO)
member states in Iran's Southeastern port city of Chabahar
in April.
Ambassadors and investors from the 10 member countries of
the ECO will be informed of the investment opportunities in
the zone at the conference, Head of the Public Relations and
International Affairs of Chabahar Free Trade and Industrial
Zone Organization Rouhollah Latifi said.
ECO is an intergovernmental regional organization
established in 1985 by Iran, Pakistan and Turkey with the
aim of promoting economic, technical and cultural
cooperation among member states.
The organization was expanded in 1992 to include seven new
members, namely Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
Latifi said that the country's Southeastern Chabahar Free
trade Zone enjoys essential properties for the transit of
goods to the member states of the ECO.
"The zone enjoys high international status in the transit of
commodity, therefore, a comprehensive planning can speed up
transfer of goods from the zone to ECO member states as well
as other countries in the world," Latifi said.
Latifi referred to Chabahar as a special economic
opportunity in the field of transit of commodities for the
land locked ECO countries, including Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan and Afghanistan.
Iran's Chabahar Free Trade and Industrial Zone
Hungary Seeks 15-20b Euro IMF/EU
Credit Line
BUDAPEST (Dispatches) - Hungary is seeking an international
credit line of 15 to 20 billion euros ($20 to $26.3
billion), the secretary of state heading the prime
minister's office, Mihaly Varga, was quoted on Saturday as
saying.
Hungary is seeking backup from the International Monetary
Fund and the European Union to reassure investors it has
financing even if it gets cut off from debt markets later
this year.
The country's currency, the forint, sank to a record low
against the euro a month ago, and its government bond yields
rose above 11 percent on concerns that amid the euro zone
crisis it may not be able to finance central Europe's
highest debt burden compared to its economic output.
Varga reiterated that the government expected to reach a
deal soon on a credit line that it could tap if the European
debt crisis deepened further.
"A quick agreement is in the interest of both parties,
therefore a deal could be outlined in one or two months," he
said in an interview in the daily Magyar Hirlap.
"The amount of the safety net could be somewhere between 15
and 20 billion euros," he added.
Hungary's government unnerved investors repeatedly in 2010
and 2011 with unorthodox economic policy steps. It has also
upset the European Commission with a range of legislation
including a central bank bill that the Commission said
curbed the bank's independence.
The country's markets have partially recovered due to
pledges by the government to settle these issues and set up
the international credit line.
"The planned financial backstop will allow the forint
exchange rate to stabilize and government bond yields to
drop, and it could lead to savings worth tens of billions
forints in the budget," Varga said.
The EU has threatened to cut vital 'cohesion funds' it
disburses to Hungary unless the country takes measures to
prove that it can reduce its deficit to a sustainable level.
But a slowdown in the economy makes further budget cuts
difficult. The government expects 0.5 percent growth for the
year and the IMF 0.3 percent, while the European Bank for
Reconstruction and Development projects a 1.5 percent
contraction.
"In a hectic global environment it is more difficult to
increase the pace of growth in the Hungarian economy to a
sustainable course," Varga said. "An upswing could start
when we get to the second half of 2012."
Hungary's State Secretary Mihaly Varga
Pressure Mounts on Greece
 ATHENS (Dispatches) - Greece is to resume marathon talks
with European and IMF officials on Saturday as negotiations
to produce a bailout deal for its crisis-hit economy by next
week reached a climax.
Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos was to meet with senior
auditors from the EU, the IMF and the European Central Bank
after briefing fellow cabinet ministers on further action
needed to unlock a rescue deal worth 130 billion euros ($171
billion).
Eurozone finance ministers were also due to confer by
telephone later Saturday, after 12 hours of talks on Friday
failed to produce a breakthrough.
In parallel to negotiations with its public creditors,
pressure is also mounting on Greece to strike a deal with
private lenders to wipe out part of its debt, as Athens
faces loan repayments of 14.4 billion euros ($19 billion) on
March 20.
A report on Saturday said that agreement had been reached to
trim Greece's debt by 170 billion euros, compared to around
100 billion previously, with the European Central Bank and
eurozone central banks now joining banks in the write-off
initiative.
"The deal is expected to close on Tuesday," a eurozone
source told Ta Nea daily.
The newspaper added that the ECB would write down around 50
billion euros worth of Greek bonds, and eurozone central
banks adding another 10 billion.
The news emerged as negotiators for banks are expected to
return to Athens this weekend for further talks.
Meanwhile, Venizelos said that a planned meeting by eurozone
ministers on Greece originally scheduled for Monday would
now be held on Wednesday.
The three organisations, which rescued Greece in 2010 with
an earlier loan, are demanding further labour cost cuts
which Greek unions are refusing to concede amid fears that
they could worsen an already deep recession.
The coalition backing Greece's interim government is
strongly opposed to the troika's demands for further civil
servant cuts, now reportedly affecting teachers and military
staff, and for a reduction in the minimum wage which now
stands at 750 euros.
The leaders of Greece's socalist, conservative and far-right
nationalist parties that make up the coalition will be
summoned to a meeting with Prime Minister Lucas Papademos on
Sunday, his office said.
Papademos has reportedly threatened to resign if his
coalition backers reject the demanded austerity measures.
The government spokesman on Friday declined to comment on
the reports.
"I do not want to make such assumptions," spokesman Pantelis
Kapsis told Real FM radio. "I think the political leaders
and the prime minister will jointly take the decisions on
how we will proceed from now on."
Representatives of private holders of Greek debt are
returning to Athens this weekend for more negotiations on a
crucial writedown Greece needs to avoid sovereign default.
A spokesman for the Institute of International Finance, the
global banking organization leading the debt writedown
talks, said in an email to AFP that IIF chief Charles
Dallara and Jean Lemierre, adviser to French bank BNP
Paribas, were headed to the Greek capital to continue the
talks.
Greece has been negotiating for months to obtain debt relief
under the so-called Private Sector Initiative as a condition
for receiving a second international bailout from the EU and
the IMF, agreed in October.
Eurozone governments and banks have both been playing
hardball for weeks in their bid to reduce by at least half
the 200 billion euros in privately held Greek debt. The
country's overall debt stands at 350 billion euros.
Papademos said in a statement Friday that Greece had nearly
completed negotiations on the eurozone bailout which depends
on the debt writedown.
"We are in the final phase of a very critical procedure to
form Greece's new economic programme and complete a loan
deal that will lighten the load of the public debt and
ensure the country's financing for many years to come," he
said.
The finance minister this week said an official offer to
creditors must be made by February 15.
A demonstration in Athens on Saturday. The political
coalition backing Greece's interim government is strongly
opposed to the troika's demands for further civil servant
cuts, now reportedly affecting teachers and military staff,
and for a reduction in the minimum wage which now stands at
750 euros.
Wen Says China Has No Intention to
'Buy Europe'
 BEIJING (Dispatches) - China's Premier Wen Jiabao said
Friday the Asian giant had neither the ability nor the
intention to "buy Europe", amid concerns over growing
Chinese investment in debt-stricken eurozone economies.
China is "willing to cooperate with Europe to fight the
current crisis. Some people say this means China wants to
buy Europe", Wen told a German-China business forum in the
southern city of Guangzhou.
"This a concern and doesn't fit reality. China doesn't have
this intention and doesn't have this ability."
German Chancellor Angela Merkel, in China for a three-day
visit to boost her host's confidence in Europe, also
attended the forum along with executives from the energy,
chemicals, engineering, banking and electronics sectors.
There are growing concerns in Europe that a recent wave of
investment by Chinese companies and government-backed funds
will give Beijing too much influence over struggling
European economies.
In the latest deal, China State Grid has agreed to pay 387
million euros ($508.2 million) for a 25 percent stake in the
national electricity grid of debt-stricken Portugal,
Treasury Secretary Maria Albuquerque said Thursday.
European leaders have called on China, which has the world's
largest foreign exchange reserves, to invest in a bailout
fund to rescue debt-stricken countries.
China has so far made no firm commitment to provide
financial assistance, although Wen said Thursday it was
considering getting more involved in bailout funds through
the International Monetary Fund.
Analysts say bargain-hunting is behind the recent
acquisitions by Chinese companies seeking to expand
overseas. The country's sovereign wealth fund has also
sought to diversify away from US bonds.
At the forum Wen also touched on the politically sensitive
topic of rare earths -- 17 elements crucial in the
manufacturing of many high-tech products -- amid accusations
China unfairly restricts exports of the valuable minerals.
China -- the world's largest producer of rare earths -- "has
no discrimination when it comes to foreign companies", Wen
told the forum.
State media said this week Beijing was bracing for renewed
calls to ease its rare earths controls after the World Trade
Organization ruled the country's limits on key raw material
exports broke trade rules.
Merkel, who earlier Friday held talks with President Hu
Jintao and the country's top legislator Wu Bangguo in
Beijing, had said that she would raise human rights issues
during her visit.
Rights lawyer Mo Shaoping, whose clients include jailed
Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo, told AFP Friday that
police had prevented him from meeting with Merkel at a
reception at the German Embassy on Thursday.
Mo said police told him he was not allowed to attend the
meeting due to concerns over social stability ahead of a key
Communist Party meeting slated for late this year that will
usher in a 10-yearly leadership transition.
The German embassy in Beijing did not immediately comment on
the absence of Mo, who also defended the jailed rights
lawyer Gao Zhisheng.
Merkel's visit to Guangdong province will include a meeting
with Gan Junqiu, the state-backed Catholic bishop of
Guangzhou -- the provincial capital -- a German diplomatic
source said, before returning to Germany on Saturday.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel (L) chats with Chinese
Premier Wen Jiabao during their visit to the Herrenknecht
Tunnelling Equipment Co Ltd plant in Guangzhou, southern
China, on February 3.
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