EU agrees to start lifting sanctions on Myanmar

BRUSSELS: EU foreign ministers agreed Monday to begin easing sanctions against Myanmar to encourage reform but will await further positive signals before calling an end to restrictive measures, diplomats said.

“We will begin by suspending some visa bans as a first stage from today,” said a diplomat speaking on condition of anonymity as EU foreign ministers began a day of talks in Brussels.

Lifting all sanctions will be “conditional on the continuation of positive action by the authorities,” the source added.

EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton hailed “the quite extraordinary changes in the last weeks and months” and announced she would visit the country in April as she went into the ministerial meetings.

The 27-nation bloc has been divided over how soon to lift sanctions, with some insisting on waiting for by-elections on April 1, which will see a historic bid for parliament by Nobel peace laureate Aung San Suu Kyi.

Ashton said the European Union had been in contact with her on the issue. AGENCIES

Oil cruises beyond $106

SINGAPORE: Brent traded above $106 a barrel on Tuesday, rising for a second straight session, after a radical French proposal to roll over Greek debt strengthened the euro and eased concerns of the debt crisis spreading across Europe.

President Nicolas Sarkozy said that French banks had reached a draft agreement with the authorities on a voluntary rollover of maturing bonds, as markets anxiously awaited an outcome of a vote in Greece to approve unpopular fiscal austerity measures.

ICE Brent crude for August LCOc1 gained 25 cents to $106.24 a barrel by 0231 GMT after hitting an intraday high of $106.84. U.S. crude CLc1 rose 36 cents to $90.97 barrel, staying above the front-month 250-day moving average of $89.45.

“The market is slightly optimistic thanks to comments from the French President last night,” said Ken Hasegawa, a commodity sales manager at Newedge Japan.

A stronger euro makes dollar-denominated oil more affordable.

Investors are still watching if Greece’s parliament will approve austerity steps that are a precondition for international aid the country needs to avoid a default.

“WTI may be supported around $90, but any upside will be limited because of concerns about the economy in the euro zone,” Hasegawa said.

This could keep Brent’s premium to WTI CL-LCO1=R in a range between $13 and $15 a barrel, he added.

The euro inched higher on Tuesday, but stalled just below chart resistance, as investors awaited the Greek vote.

Without approval, the European Union and the International Monetary Fund say they will not disburse the fifth trance of Greece’s 110 billion-euro bailout programme. Athens needs the aid to pay its bills next month and avert the euro zone’s first sovereign default.

“If they fail to get an agreement, oil prices will fall,” Hasegawa said.

A surprise announcement by the International Energy Agency to release oil from strategic reserves has likely been priced in after Brent fell 7 percent last week, he added.

“Fundamentally, I don’t think that will have a big impact on the market … as the 60 million barrels of oil can be absorbed easily,” he said.

South Korea will start to release 3.46 million barrels of oil, including 2 million barrels of crude and 1.46 million barrels of products by “today at the earliest,” a source at the economy ministry said.

A drop in prices may lift gasoline consumption in the United States, Hasegawa said, easing concerns of demand destruction at the world’s largest oil user.

The market is also gearing up for a fall in crude inventories in the United States in industry data due late Tuesday. Analysts are expecting stocks to shrink for the fourth week in a row. AGENCIES

EU puts sanctions on Iranian human rights violators

LUXEMBOURG: European Union governments imposed punitive measures on Tuesday on more than 30 Iranian officials blamed for human rights abuses in Iran, broadening the sanctions programme against Tehran.

The new steps include travel restrictions and asset freezes — limits the EU has already imposed on people closely involved in Tehran’s nuclear programme.

British Foreign Secretary William Hague, attending a meeting of EU foreign ministers in Luxembourg on Tuesday, said Iran’s human rights record was “appalling”.

“Iran seems to believe that with all the change happening in the Middle East they can get away with an even worse human rights situation in their country,” he told reporters.

“They have imprisoned opposition leaders, there is detention of more journalists than in any other country in the world, and excessive use of the death penalty.”

In its annual report on global human rights last week, the U.S. State Department said Iran had executed about 312 people in 2010, many after trials conducted in secret.

In many cases people who were executed for supposedly criminal offences such as drug trafficking were actually political dissidents, the report said.

Authorities held political prisoners and continued to crack down on women’s rights reformers, campaigners for ethnic minority rights, student activists and religious minorities.

EU sanctions focus mostly on economic and trade measures aiming to force Iran to slow its nuclear programme, which Tehran says serves peaceful purposes but Western powers worry aims to produce weapons.

The United States already targets human rights violators in Iran, through a sanctions list that also includes economic and other measures targeting nuclear work. AGENCIES

European Union to set up eurozone

European Union leaders have agreed to set up a eurozone rescue fund. This step has been taken for permanent safety net to bail out any member state whose debt problems threaten the 16-nation eurozone.The new mechanism, which will start from 2013, will succeed the eurozone’s temporary bailout fund.

President of European Union Commission has said that after amendments in European agreement, Euro will get stronger position in market. The agreement comes as Spain raised just under 2.5 billion euros on the bond market, but at heavy cost, paying twice as much interest as Germany would have. Meanwhile, rating agency has warned it may again downgrade Greece’s credit rating over concerns about the country’s ability to cut debt to sustainable levels.

Iran agrees to discuss its nuclear program

TEHRAN: Iran has agreed to discuss its nuclear program at a meeting next week in Geneva, but President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says the Islamic Republic won’t make “one iota” of concessions about its nuclear rights.

The European Union says Saeed Jalili, Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, will meet with EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton on Dec. 6 and 7 — the first talks in a year after negotiations bogged down.

Ashton’s office says she will act “on behalf” of the U.S., China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany.

Ahmadinejad said Tuesday that his country is ready to enter nuclear talks with the world powers under “equal” conditions.

The United States and its allies say Iran is seeking to build a nuclear bomb. Tehran denies that.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is

Russia’s Medvedev warns of new arms race

MOSCOW: President Dmitry Medvedev warned on Tuesday that a new arms race would be sparked within the next decade unless Russia and the West forged an agreement to cooperate on building a missile defence system.

In his annual State of the Nation address, Medvedev called for closer cooperation with the United States and the European Union, holding out the prospect of closer ties two decades after the Soviet Union’s collapse ended the Cold War.

But he said tension would ratchet up fast, forcing Russia to bolster its military arsenal, if Western offers of cooperation on a system to defend against missile threats failed to produce a concrete agreement.

“In the coming decade we face the following alternatives: Either we reach agreement on missile defence and create a full-fledged joint mechanism of cooperation, or a new round of the arms race will begin,” Medvedev

Saudi urged China to be tougher on Iran -WikiLeaks

RIYADH: Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia has offered to promote energy ties with China if Beijing backed sanctions against Iran, according to diplomatic cables leaked by whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, the New York Times reported.

The kingdom is the top crude oil supplier for China, the world’s second-largest oil consumer.

“(Saudi) Deputy Foreign Minister Dr Prince Torki … explained that Saudi Arabia understood China was concerned about having access to energy supplies, which could be cut off by Iran, and wanted to attract more trade and investment,” a diplomatic dispatch said, the newspaper reported on its website.

“Saudi Arabia was willing to provide assurances on those scores to China, but only in exchange for tangible Chinese actions to restrain Iran’s drive for nuclear weapons.”

Iran has been hit by international, U.S. and European Union

Euro nations lean on Portugal to seek help: report

LONDON: Euro zone nations and its central bank are urging Portugal to apply for a financial bailout from a European rescue fund, Financial Times Deutschland reported on Friday.

Without revealing its sources, the paper said a majority of euro zone countries and the European Central Bank were putting pressure on Portugal to follow Ireland and Greece and seek aid in order to save Spain — European Union’s fifth-largest economy — from having to do the same.

The paper quoted a source in Germany’s finance ministry as saying: “If Portugal were to use the fund, it would be good for Spain, because the country is heavily exposed to Portugal.”

The German Finance Ministry could not immediately be reached for comment on the report which suggested that despite public displays of confidence, euro area leaders were alarmed at the prospect of the debt crisis engulfing ever

EU/IMF Ireland package to total €85 billion: report

LONDON: The European Union and IMF bailout package for Ireland will total 85 billion euros ($114 billion) over three years to fund the government deficit and recapitalize banks, public broadcaster RTE said.

The Irish Finance Ministry dismissed the report as premature and said the package was still under negotiation.

RTE’s figure, which would amount to roughly 20,000 euros per Irish citizen, is in line with figures estimated by economists, although some have said that even more could be needed to keep the country afloat.

RTE said the package from the EU and the International Monetary Fund would provide 48 billion euros to help fund the Irish government’s deficit over the next three years and 15-20 billion to recapitalize its banks, with a contingency fund of 20 billion euros for the banks.

“The package would see the level of capital in the Irish banks

Mob in Athens abuses Muslims as they celebrate Eid

ATHENS: Dozens of far-right activists and local residents threw eggs and taunted hundreds of Muslim immigrants as they gathered to pray in a central square for Eid al-Adha surrounded by a protective cordon of riot police.

Greece, which has become the main immigrant gateway to the European Union, has a growing Muslim community and tensions between locals and incomers have run high in some Athens areas such as Attiki square, the scene of Tuesday’s incident.

Athens’ Muslim community is without an official mosque and prayers are usually held at cultural centres or community halls or private apartments around the city. The Muslim community in Greece is estimated at about 1 million, in a country where most people are Greek Orthodox Christians.

While the Muslims prayed, some locals shouted obscenities from their balconies and waved Greek flags. Leaflets that

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