World Bank President Robert Zoellick has criticized the United States for its lack of leadership in pushing for a new global trade agreement.

Zoellick says U.S. administration complaints that the so-called Doha round of trade talks are structurally flawed are an excuse for failed leadership.

The price of gold surged on Monday above $1,600 per ounce for the first time in history, as investors bought the safe-haven metal amid deepening debt worries in the eurozone and the United States.

Gold jumped as high as $1,600.10 an ounce in early morning trading on the London Bullion Market, as the precious metal extended its recent record-breaking surge which began on Friday.

Donor aid to fund trade appeared to hold up in 2010 despite weak global economic growth and increasing concerns over state debt, the World Trade Organization said on Monday.

But with pressure expected to grow in coming months over the high debt of major donor countries such as the United States, emerging economies may have to take a bigger role in financing aid for trade, the WTO said.

Iran and China on Saturday signed a series of agreements worth $4 billion (2.8 billion euros) for infrastructure projects as part of a broader bid to boost trade volume between the two nations, Iranian state media reported.

As part of a $500 million (354 million euros) deal, China agreed to provide Iran with 60 energy recovery incinerators, which are to be installed within a year in major cities and in Iran's northern tourism hub along the Caspian sea.

Greece heads to another EU summit next week on fresh aid for its debt-wracked economy after evoking -- before pulling back -- the thorny notion of a selective default that could unleash a Eurozone storm.

The term is understood to mean a pick-and-choose approach to a country's maturing debt, with a government arranging to delay repayment on certain obligations while continuing to fully honor others.

Iraq will be the key player in international oil politics over the next two decades, the country's top government official for the energy sector said on Saturday.

"If we continue along the path we are on, Iraq will over the next two decades be the country that sets oil policy in the world in terms of price, supply and demand," Deputy Prime Minister Hussein al-Shahristani said at a conference of Iraqi diplomats in Baghdad.

The European Union publishes on Friday the results of major stress tests on Europe's troubled banking sector, facing pressures from the Eurozone debt crisis now affecting Italy and Spain.

The European Banking Authority, the EU's London-based regulator for the financial sector, has carried out assessments on 91 banks representing 65 percent of the sector and will publish its findings at 1600 GMT.

China's top hypermarket operator Sun Art Retail Group has delayed its Hong Kong trading debut scheduled for Friday over an error in its prospectus, after raising $1.06 billion from the share sale.

The retail giant, backed by France's Groupe Auchan SA, has sold 1.14 billion shares at HK$7.20 (93 US cents) each, at the top end of its price range, bucking a recent downturn in the Hong Kong IPO market, the world's biggest.

Largest U.S. creditor China and Wall Street piled on pressure Thursday for President Barack Obama and his Republican foes to reach an elusive budget compromise and avert a ruinous early August default.

Cries of alarm over the stalemate's potential impact on the world economy grew louder as Obama and congressional leaders opened their fifth straight day of talks at the White House with long odds of a breakthrough.

Waterfront City, the flagship project to line the Joseph Khoury Marina stretch in Dbayeh , was launched Wednesday, in a breathtaking ceremony on-site in Lebanon. Hundreds of guests, partners and members of the press gathered on the vast project site, where the much-anticipated grand-scale master planned development will rise from, to witness its unveil. The project, as was confirmed, will include residential, commercial and leisure facilities, to unfold in multiple phases over the next few years.

On July 13, 2011, Phase One of Waterfront City was launched, which will include 7 unique buildings, an uplifted promenade with cafes, restaurants and a retail zone. The project, located on the Mediterranean Sea, approximately 15km north of Beirut, is a product of a strong joint collaboration between Ste Joseph G. Khoury et Fils Holding and regional developer Majid Al Futtaim Properties.