GENEVA, Dec. 11--Brazil launched its bid on Friday to head the World Trade Organization (WTO), saying its candidate could strengthen the role of developing countries in the global trade body, Reuters reported.
Brazilian contender, Luiz Felipe Seixas Correa, the country's envoy to the WTO, faces competition from at least two other developing country candidates along with former European Union trade chief Pascal Lamy.
They are bidding to take over from Thailand's Supachai Panitchpakdi, who stands down next August, as the WTO battles to conclude the already-delayed Doha Round of global free trade negotiations.
Noting representatives of rich nations already presided over the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank, a top Brazilian official said many of the WTO's 148 member states felt it important that the world's top trade job not also go to them.
"The prevailing feeling in Geneva and capitals for years now was that the next (WTO) director-general should come from a developing country," said Clodoaldo Hugueney, Brazil's chief trade negotiator, who was in Geneva for the candidacy announcement.
Although both Hugueney and Seixas Correa declined comment on the relative merits of the various candidates, they made clear they felt Brazil was a better standard bearer for developing country interests than South American rival Uruguay.
Brazil is the spokesman for and a founder member of the Group of 20 alliance, which includes India and China.

BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Dec. 11--Fuel and electricity shortages in the Baghdad area are getting worse and could threaten confidence in Iraq's interim administration, a US-led coalition document said on Friday.
"The supply of fuel products in the Baghdad area has dropped to critical levels," the document, seen by Reuters, said. "If the current situation does not improve quickly, public confidence in the government may deteriorate significantly."
The document said fuel distribution problems were leading to long lines at gasoline stations, while there was still low access to electrical power.
"The problems are the result of both insurgent and criminal activity," it said.
The document contrasts with public US statements that Iraqi electricity output is rising and that the country's oil facilities are steadily being restored 19 months after the US declared an end to major combat after toppling Saddam Hussein.
Traders say the winter season, sabotage, a lack of security on the country's roads and failure to contract imports to reliable suppliers has deepened fuel shortages that Iraq started suffering after last year's US-led invasion.
Iraq used to export refined oil products before the war. Imports now cost the country $200 million a month, with oil products coming by truck from Turkey, Iran, Jordan and Syria, and through the Khor al-Zubeir terminal on the Persian Gulf.
Twenty liters of gasoline in Iraq now costs $14 on the black market compared with the official rate of 20 cents at the pumps, where supply is meager and queues stretch for miles.
Households also lack kerosene and gasoil for heating.

Pillars from the Millau Viaduct rise above the cloud-covered valley of the river Tarn in Paris. (Reuters Photo)

PARIS, Dec. 11--The world's highest bridge, designed by British architect Norman Foster, will be opened in southwestern France next week, taking its first traffic over the river Tarn in the Massif Central mountain range and soaring into the record books, AFP reported.
"The height of the supports, the length of the work, the number of pylons, it's an exceptional feat," crowed Jean-Frangois Coste, head of the state's expert control team, ahead of the bridge's inauguration on Tuesday.
The road will convey travelers a spectacular 270 meters (890 feet) above ground, along 2.46 kilometers (1.6 miles).
The structure is 23 meters taller than the Eiffel Tower--reaching 343 meters at its highest point.
Designed by Foster and financed by the French construction group Eiffage, the soaring steel bridge has already drawn praise from hundreds of thousands of tourists.
Completing a major new motorway link from Paris to the Mediterranean it removes a notorious bottleneck through the town of Millau below.
Its seven slender pillars rise like giant needles from the valley bed--one of them standing 245 meters high, the tallest in the world.
It is hoped the edifice will restore some of the pride in French engineering technology, which took a bad dent with the collapse of part of a new hi-tech terminal at Charles de Gaulle airport outside Paris at the weekend.
The Millau bridge was assembled using highly innovative construction techniques.
From the north and south sides of the valley, the metal sections of the bridge were assembled, lifted slightly and then carefully slid into place on each of seven supporting pillars.
The operation was repeated 18 times to bring the two halves of the deck together.
The total metal structure weighs approximately 36,000 tons--around one quarter of the weight of a similar bridge built with concrete and conventional techniques. It was built in record time, with construction launched in December 2001.
Eiffage shouldered the entire construction cost of 394 million euros ($524 million) and has been granted a concession to operate the bridge for 75 years.
Motorists will be charged 4.6 euros (5.6 dollars) for the trip across the bridge, rising to 6.5 euros in the summer months, while heavy vehicles are to be charged 19 euros.

NEW DELHI, India, Dec. 11--India decided Friday to set up an aviation watchdog and said the national regulator would steer a 400-billion rupee ($8.69-billion) program to revamp the country's ramshackle airports, AFP reported.
Infrastructure is a massive problem even at large Indian airports with insufficient plane parking slots, runways that need to be lengthened and facilities such as duty-free shops that fall short of international rivals.
Montek Singh Ahluwalia, number two in India's national planning agency, said the federal watchdog would be responsible for the upgrade of 25 domestic and international airports and supporting facilities.
"The statutory regulator will be in place by next month and 400 billion rupees required for the modernization of airports would be met through public/private partnership," the economist-turned executive told reporters in New Delhi.
Fifty-five more airports have also been identified for modernization, Ahluwalia said after a meeting of the federal planning commission headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the architect of India's free-market economy.

DaimlerChrysler's Dodge Division shows off their SRT-10 truck at the North American International Auto Show at Cobo Hall in Detroit, 2002. (AFP File Photo)

DETROIT, USA, Dec. 11--US safety regulators have asked DaimlerChrysler AG to recall more than half a million sport utilities and pick-up trucks over problems with failing ball joints, the automaker confirmed Friday, AFP reported.
Federal regulators have linked failing ball joints on Dodge Durango SUVs and Dodge pick-ups from the 2000 to 2003 model years to several crashes, but no fatalities or injuries.
Chrysler has 30 reports of cases in which the upper ball joints have worn out prematurely, causing the body of the truck to collapse onto the wheel, Chrysler Group spokesman Max Gates said.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has been probing the defect for five months, and recommended that Chrysler issue a voluntary safety recall in a letter sent out this week.
"We are still in the process of reviewing the letter and NHTSA's analysis and discussing what our options are," said Gates. The company expects to deliver a formal response to NHTSA on Monday, he added.
The automaker has so far resisted pressure for a recall, arguing that the defect is not dangerous.
Meanwhile, Volkswagen, Europe's biggest car maker, said Friday it was recalling 290,000 VW, Audi, Seat and Skoda cars built between March and August 2004 owing to a potential fault that could provoke engine leaks.
VW said in a statement it was writing to the owners, of whom 90,000 were in Germany, asking them to take the cars into garages for inspection.
The problem, which affects three- and four-cylinder diesel models, could result from a fracture in a fuel pump screw, that could cause fuel to leak, VW said.

CARPI, Italy, Dec. 11--Thousands of Italy's Chinese immigrants face long hard nights, working under the glare of neon lights in sweat shop-style small clothing factories, AFP reported.
But now in the northern Italian textiles district of Carpi, the local authorities are seeking to bring the moonlighting under control, after a mushrooming in the number of Chinese workers in Italy from 16,000 to 100,000 since the year 2000.
"We can not force them to come into line, but we offer them explanations, services," said Stefano Borsari, the head of the Spinner Point project, which is leading the fight against a black-market labor force.
Spinner Point is pioneering a unique scheme, setting up a group of mediators to try to get clothing companies to come into line. But they admit they face an uphill task, as about 15 percent of the Chinese workers are living in Italy illegally, while 30 percent have no work contracts.
The group of three economists, two sociologists and three Chinese mediators, have, with the help of funds from the European Union, published bilingual leaflets, laying out Italian legislation. And they have forged contacts with some 9,000 small textiles companies in Carpi, which lies near northwestern Italy's city of Modena.
Unlike in the rest of Europe, the Chinese immigrants have gone into the textiles processing, rather than the restaurant and catering sector. "They came to Italy to earn money, not to have a good time, and that means they allow themselves to be exploited," said Borsari.
Here, in this Italian textiles stronghold where some 1,500 small companies are fighting for the foreign wholesale market, the factories employing Chinese workers offer the same kind of cut-prices and flexible deadlines companies as in China itself.

An artistÕs rendition of the new Airbus A350-900 passenger jet (AP Photo)

PARIS, Dec. 11--The European aircraft manufacturer Airbus is to launch a new plane, the A350, that will challenge the future Boeing fuel-efficient 7E7, Airbus owners EADS and BAE Systems said Friday, AFP reported.
The announcement came as the board of directors of the European Aeronautic Defense and Space Company (EADS) was meeting in Amsterdam. EADS controls 80 percent of Airbus and BAE Systems of Britain 20 percent.
The decision means that Airbus is authorized to solicit orders for the aircraft, derived from the A330 model, which will be offered in two versions that are expected to be operational in 2010.
EADS and BAE Systems foresee a market for 3,100 mid-range aircraft such as the A350 over 20 years. The plane will have a capacity of between 245 and 285 seats.
The A350 will strongly contribute to EADS' long-term business strategy and profitable growth," said EADS co-chief executives Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich in a statement.
"Moving forward with a new long-range aircraft is of great importance for the future competitiveness of Airbus' product range as a whole."
The overall cost of a new program could come to as much as four billion euros ($5.3 billion), according to press reports.
Airbus chief executive Noel Forgeard has said he would ask for reimbursable advances from four European countries--Britain, France, Germany and Spain--to go ahead with development of the A350.
The move would likely aggravate a US-European row over the legality of government assistance to Boeing and Airbus.
EADS shares edged up following the announcement, rising 0.52 percent in Paris to 23.08 euros on a generally stronger market.
"We cannot make a judgment on the announcement for the moment," said one analyst from a European bank who asked not to be named. "There are very few details, notably on financing, investment and financial impacts."

MADRID, Spain, Dec. 10--Spain's important fishing industry on Friday expressed deep concerns at European Union proposals for 2005 fishing quotas made Wednesday which Spain believes will harm its industry, AFP reported.
The quotas foresee new cuts in the amounts that European fishermen can catch of vulnerable species such as cod, and outright bans in areas of some waters, and Spain has reacted with dismay.
The chairman of the Federation of Fishermen's Associations in the northwestern region of Galicia, Evarista Lareo, warned that the move put some 9,000 jobs at risk.
Spain is particularly concerned at European Commission proposals to impose an 85 percent cut in the overall EU catch of anchovies in the Bay of Biscay off western France.
"This is a measure which will put at risk some 40 canneries," financial daily Expansion quoted the general secretary of Spanish canneries, Jose Manuel Vietes, as saying.
Expansion quoted industry experts as saying that if Brussels gets its way supplies of fish in Spain will slump by half and could lead to huge price increases, while the sector is additionally a major employer in Galicia.