CHINA

China can become a powerful force to help developing nations fight both climate change and poverty with low-cost exports of wind or solar technologies, the head of the U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) said.

Struggling Japanese chipmakers NEC Electronics and Renesas Technology said they aim to turn an operating profit in the first year after their merger next April by outsourcing production and eliminating business overlap.

China has so far weathered the global economic downturn with its growth rate staying robust and no sign the government faces any major challenge to its rule. Following is a summary of key China risks to watch:

A planned meeting of diplomats from major powers on Iran's nuclear program will not take place this year although discussions will continue by telephone, the State Department said on Monday.

A senior Chinese envoy said on Monday that developing nations' top concern at a slow-moving climate summit is securing funds from the rich to pay for carbon emissions cuts and cover the cost of adapting to a warmer world.

Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co (BAIC) said on Monday it had acquired some assets of General Motors' Saab unit as part of a push to develop its own-brand cars.

A Chinese IT outsourcing company and an optical components maker are aiming to select investment banks in the next two weeks with the goal of making U.S. initial public offerings by as soon as the first half of 2010, one of their investors said on Monday.

African nations agreed to resume U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen on Monday after a half-day suspension, accusing rich countries of trying to kill the existing Kyoto Protocol.

China's vaccination campaign against the H1N1 flu strain is not proceeding as fast as it should be partly because people are needlessly worried about the safety of the vaccine, officials said on Friday.

China is unlikely to raise interest rates in the first quarter of 2010, a senior government economist said in remarks published on Monday.

If a currency represents a country's standing on the global stage, then China has been poorly represented until now.

Warehouses holding everything from beer kegs to frozen chickens crowd the roadside along Highway 146 south of Houston, and a ferocious building boom is adding acres more, thanks to an even bigger project 1,800 miles away in Panama.

Sports-car maker Spyker is still in talks to buy Saab, the Dutch company's top executive said on Sunday after a report China's BAIC had agreed with General Motors to buy some of the Swedish company's assets.

Environment ministers tried to overcome rifts between rich and developing nations in Copenhagen on Sunday just days before a deadline for reaching a global pact on tackling climate change.

Saab can still find a buyer for the whole firm, a spokesman for the loss-making auto maker said on Sunday after The Wall Street Journal reported China's BAIC had agreed with General Motors to buy some of the Swedish company's assets.

Chinese leader Hu Jintao opened the Kazakh section of a new Central Asia-China gas pipeline on Saturday, tightening Beijing's control over natural resources in the vast energy-rich region.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid urged Chinese President Hu Jintao to address his country's huge trade imbalance with the United States through a significant revaluation of China's currency.

Two companies' shares fell in their debuts on the New York Stock Exchange on Friday, capping a week of poor performance for initial public offerings as investors grow choosier at year-end.

A draft climate pact unveiled on Friday revived hopes that U.N. talks might be able to pin down an international deal to fight global warming, but developing nations said they needed more cash from the rich.

Industry has struggled to sway U.N. climate talks in Copenhagen because of a remote negotiating process and a lobby split between climate policy winners and losers, executives said on Friday.

Iraq could challenge Russia's number two spot among world oil producers after auctioning two prized oilfields on Friday, although it failed to attract companies to bid for deals in its most dangerous areas.