UNITED ARAB EMIRATES

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

Dubai struggled to ease fears of debt default on Thursday after its move to delay repayments at two flagship firms shook confidence in the Middle East as a center for investment and a source of capital.

Abu Dhabi is not going to crow publicly over Dubai's troubles. But it will use the opportunity to assert control over its upstart neighbour. The price for Abu Dhabi's help could be prize assets like airline Emirates. Dubai has little choice but to do what it is told.

A dollar bond sale by Saudi-backed Gulf International Bank (GIB) was pulled after Dubai's move to delay repayment on billions of dollars of debt owed by its two flagship firms, sources said on Thursday.

Dubai's debt problems shook European banking shares on Thursday despite the emirate's efforts to minimize the impact of a debt restructuring plan at two of its biggest companies that raised fears of default.

Dubai said on Wednesday two of its flagship firms planned to delay repayment on billions of dollars of debt as a first step toward restructuring Dubai World, the conglomerate that spearheaded the emirate's breakneck growth.

Dubai will ask creditors of two of its flagship firms for a standstill on debt worth billions of dollars as a first step toward restructuring Dubai World, the conglomerate which spearheaded the emirate's breakneck growth.

A unit of General Electric Co raised $500 million in a 5-year Islamic bond sale, the first by a large U. S. conglomerate, as it looks to diversify its investor base.

A Federal Reserve official said on Monday that the U.S. economy still faced significant weaknesses and urged policymakers to allow large financial institutions to fail if needed.

Boeing is set to enter a strategic pact with Mubadala, the Abu Dhabi government-owned investment firm, a senior Boeing executive said on Monday.

Boeing , which expects airlines to return to profitability in 2011, said on Monday that Middle East carriers would need 1,710 new jets over the next 20 years, valued at about $300 billion.

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Two Iranian businessmen working at a Dubai-based firm were linked to video surveillance devices sold to Sudan and used in unmanned drones in Darfur in violation of a U.N. arms embargo, a U.N. report said.

A U.N. panel of experts has demanded that Burkina Faso investigate weapons transfers to the rebel-controlled northern part of the neighboring West African state of Ivory Coast.

Oil prices rose above $71 per barrel on Tuesday as the dollar slipped against major currencies and after a U.S. government agency raised its forecast of world oil demand for the fourth quarter.

Oil prices rose more than $1 to above $71 per barrel on Tuesday, helped by a fall in the U.S. dollar after a report Gulf Arab states were in talks to replace the greenback with a basket of currencies in oil trading.

Gulf Arab oil exporters will stay with the dollar as the currency for trading crude, a source in the United Arab Emirates central bank said on Tuesday.

Britain's The Independent newspaper said on Tuesday that Gulf Arab states were in secret talks with Russia, China, Japan and France to replace the U.S. dollar with a basket of currencies in the trading of oil.

International real estate firm Hines plans to set up a $1 billion distressed asset fund focusing on the United Arab Emirates, a company official was quoted on Saturday as saying.

A survey of small and mid-sized companies in 12 major global markets showed growing confidence in the state of global trade, Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, said on Tuesday.