Aviation traffic in the Arab region recorded the highest growth in the world in 2006 at 12.2 percent, three times higher than the average global figure.

DUBAI, UAE, Feb. 3--Ten leading Middle East airports will invest $36.8 billion in new airport capacity that will provide for an additional 318 million passengers per year by 2012, according to a report.
Aviation traffic in the Arab region recorded the highest growth in the world in 2006 at 12.2 percent, three times higher than the average global figure, TradeArabia wrote.
According to the Center for Asia Pacific Aviation (CAPA), the region once again eclipsed global capacity growth which rose to a record of 3.4 percent. “The Arab region foresees a rapid growth in the world for international traffic between 2006-2010,“ says CAPA executive chairman Peter Harbison.
CAPA, together with Terrapinn, is organizing the first Middle East Aviation Outlook Summit in Abu Dhabi on Feb. 27 and 28.
CAPA’s views on the region are borne out by IATA, which forecasts that the annual average growth of passenger traffic in the Middle East is predicted to remain strong at 6.9 percent in comparison with the global average of 4.8 percent.
According to the CAPA’s report, the Middle East was again the fastest growing region for passengers and cargo in 2006, recording full-year growth of 15.4 percent and 16.1 percent respectively, as per IATA’s figures.
“Ten million passengers are handled by five major airports and Dubai being the pre-eminent hub holds alone one quarter, or 22 percent of the total 128 million passengers,“ says Harbison.
In a report on the Middle East Aviation Outlook, CAPA stressed that the aviation industry in the Arab region is not an “over-hyped bubble.“ Its remarkable growth is expected to continue at sustainable levels well into the future.
Airport and aviation expansion is expected to boost and maintain the current healthy levels of growth.
“The Middle East is not expanding in an excessive, unplanned way,“ added Harbison. “Several factors are forcing this development. The region enjoys a natural geographical advantage which nowadays is perceived as the heart of the world and it has been enhanced by an open sky liberalization which makes intermediate ports become valuable crossroads hubs. “
The UAE, Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, and Qatar are the region’s leaders; they have implemented “open skies“ policies that played a major role in the development of their tourism industries as well as their success to access numerous international markets.

Oil group OPEC, which this week maintained its production target amid uncertainty over the US economy, could well sit tight again when it meets in the Austrian capital in early March, analysts said.
On Friday at an extraordinary meeting in Vienna, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries left its official daily output ceiling at 29.67 million barrels of oil, insisting the market was adequately supplied, AFP wrote.
The organization, which produces 40 percent of world oil, snubbed US demands for an increase and focused instead on supporting prices that have fallen 10 percent since the start of the year.
“OPEC is meeting again in five weeks on March 5th (for a regular session) and such a move would give it more time to assess latest developments in the US“, said oil analyst Andrey Kryuchenkov at the Sucden brokerage.
Fears of a US recession abound after the US government revealed on Friday that the economy lost 17,000 jobs in January, marking a decline in employment for the first time since August of 2003.
“OPEC remains concerned about a potentially deep recession in the US, which could reduce demand growth for energy and until this becomes clear the group is unlikely to make any significant policy shifts,“ said Kryuchenkov.
Friday’s freeze was a snub to the United States after President George W. Bush recently urged OPEC to increase output to help bring down high oil prices that stunt economic growth and fuel inflation.
Since striking a high above $100 at the start of the year, the price of oil has slid owing to fears of a US recession and a global economic slowdown. However at around $90 a barrel currently, it remains almost double the level of a year ago.
Even so, this is not enough to please some OPEC members, analysts said.
“Their instinct was to cut“ on Friday, said Simon Wardell of Global Insight.
Only pressure from the US made them “wary,“ he added.
OPEC members, notably Iran and Venezuela, said in Vienna this week that the organization may have to cut output in March should crude prices continue to weaken.
Lower oil prices are not welcomed by the organization’s producers as their export income drops. Saudi Arabia, the world’s biggest exporter of crude, is producing about 9.0 million barrels of oil per day, so even small changes in prices significantly affect the kingdom’s revenue.
OPEC feels justified in ignoring US calls for higher output simply because oil futures have fallen by a significant amount since the price of New York crude struck an historic high of $100.09 a barrel on Jan. 3, analysts said.
But winning public support for a cut in production in March would be much harder, especially if prices hold at current high levels, they added.
“If they stay in a 90-dollar range, how could they cut? questioned Paul Tossetti of PFC Energy.
Nigeria, an OPEC member and Africa’s biggest oil producer, said Friday’s decision had been unanimous.
“March’s decision maybe more difficult to take but we’ll see what happens,“ Nigeria’s Minister of State for Energy, Odein Ajumogobia, told reporters.
“That’s the whole idea, between now and March, to keep a close watch on the factors that have affected the price volatility over the last few months.“

BAGHDAD, Iraq,
Feb. 3--Iraq has halted oil exports to Austria’s OMV, the leading oil and gas group in central Europe, to protest a deal with the self-ruled Kurdish region, a government official said Saturday.
The company joins South Korea’s SK Energy in being cut off because of deals with the Kurds that are not sanctioned by the government in Baghdad, AP wrote.
In November, OMV signed two production-sharing contracts with the Kurdish administration in northern Iraq for two exploration blocks, Mala Omar and Shorish, in Irbil.
Irbil, located about 217 miles north of Baghdad, is the capital of the Kurdish region, which is made up of three northern Iraqi provinces.
An official from Iraq’s Oil Ministry said the decision to end the contract was enforced Jan. 1. “The ministry has made it clear since last December that it would stop cooperation with these companies and then blacklist them if they keep insist on maintaining these contracts which we consider illegal,“ the official said on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to release the information.
The official said OMV will no longer receive 10,000 barrels per day of Iraq’s Basra Light crude.
In Vienna, OMV spokesman Thomas Huemer declined to comment on the ministry’s decision but stressed that its oil deal with the Kurds was in line with the Iraqi Constitution.
Four companies are thought to have agreements with both the Oil Ministry and with Kurdistan: the United Arab Emirates’ Crescent, Canada’s Western Oil Sands and Heritage Oil, India’s Reliance Industries and Austria’s OMV.
“Letters were already sent to these companies to inform them about the decision in case they eye any future cooperation with the Oil Ministry,“ the official said.
Since April, the Kurds and Arab leaders have been wrestling in parliament over who has the final say in managing oil and gas fields. Frustrated with this delay, the Kurds have signed 15 production-sharing contracts with 20 international oil companies. The Oil Ministry considers those contracts illegal.
As of Dec. 31, South Korea’s SK Energy refused to abandon its exploration project in Kurdistan as part of a consortium led by the state-run Korea National Oil Corp. That prompted the Oil Ministry to cancel a contract to supply the company with about 90,000 barrels per day of Basra light crude.

BRUSSELS, Belgium, Feb. 3--Faced with record inflation, the European Central Bank is expected to resist pressure for an interest rate cut when its governing council meets this week, in the wake of moves by the US Federal Reserve.
Despite a spectacular decrease in US lending rates and growing concern over the 15-nation eurozone economy, analysts say the ECB will keep its main rate at 4.0 percent, where it has been since June, at Thursday’s meeting, AFP wrote.
It does not feel the time has come to cut the cost of borrowing, or even to signal that a cut is in the cards--in contrast to the Bank of England, which economists expect to ease its main rate the same day.
“ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet will show more concerns about the economy,“ said Commerzbank chief economist Joerg Kraemer. “At the same time, he will warn about the risks of inflation, as he did at the beginning of January, and stress that the ECB is ready to act“ to counter them, a way of threatening tighter monetary conditions, Kraemer added.
Eurozone inflation hit 3.2 percent in January, fuelling concern at the loss of purchasing power in Europe. Trade unions, especially in Germany, see it as a good reason to press for significantly higher wages.
But the ECB, which considers inflation to be under control if it remains just below 2.0 percent, is worried that stiff pay increases will create long-term inflation.
If the ECB holds firm, it will undoubtedly be the target of more pressure, in particular from countries like France.
Luxembourg Finance Minister Jean-Claude Juncker, who chairs the Eurogroup of finance ministers, had diplomatically added his voice to those who call for a change in policy. After formerly seeking to reassure the public about the health of the eurozone economy, Juncker now has begun to worry about risks to eurozone exports from a growing gap between US and eurozone interest rates.
The US Federal Reserve has carried out two spectacular interest rate cuts in eight days, bringing its Fed funds rate down from 4.25 percent to 3.0 percent and has left the door open to further decreases.
Maintaining its own rate at 4.0 percent would mean the ECB is exacerbating the euro’s external value and making eurozone exports more expensive.

An elderly malnourished woman lies on a bed in Kenya's town of El Wak, 1,530 km northeast of capital Nairobi in this file photo.

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia, Feb. 3--Violence and political strife in Kenya will condemn another two million of its people to extreme poverty, head of the African Development Bank said Saturday. “We and the World Bank have voiced our concern ... over the crisis: We estimate for example that it will plunge at least two million people under the poverty line,“ AfDB President Donald Kaberuka said.
He was speaking to AFP in Addis Ababa on the sidelines of an African Union summit coinciding with the political impasse that has followed Mwaki Kibaki’s re-election as Kenyan president.
More than half of Kenya’s 37 million people were already living on less than one dollar a day--the World Bank’s definition of extreme poverty--before the disputed Dec. 27 election ignited the nation’s worst crisis in 25 years.
Nearly 1,000 people have been killed and at least a quarter of a million displaced in violence that followed opposition allegations that Kibaki had rigged the vote. “It’s disappointing because Kenya had been getting excellent (economic) results over the past four years,“ Kaberuka said.
“There’s also the problem of investor confidence--and on that point, the damage is already done.“

SEATTLE, USA, Feb. 3--Yahoo Inc said it may take “quite a bit of time“ to weigh its strategic options, including keeping the company independent, following Microsoft Corp’s $45 billion offer to buy the company.
In a weekend posting on the company’s Web site, Yahoo said it was undertaking a deliberate review of Microsoft’s unsolicited offer to pay Yahoo shareholders either $31 in cash, or 0.9509 of a share of Microsoft common stock, Reuters wrote.
The review “will include evaluating all of the Company’s strategic alternatives including maintaining Yahoo! as an independent company,“ the posting said. “A review process like this is fluid, and it can take quite a bit of time.“
In response to a frequently asked question about whether Yahoo would seek proposals from other companies, also posted on its website, the company said it was going to evaluate all options.
Analysts cited Comcast Corp, Viacom Inc and General Electric Co among possible bidders, although they also said few companies had the balance sheet to compete with Microsoft or were as natural a fit for Yahoo.
Microsoft’s bold move to buy the Silicon Valley company would create a combined entity better able to respond to the growing dominance of Google Inc in web search and digital advertising.
Microsoft said it has courted Yahoo for the last 18 months, but its earlier approaches were rebuffed and it decided to make its offer public to Yahoo shareholders.
Yahoo shares shot up about 48 percent to $28.33 on the news of Microsoft’s offer.

MOSCOW, Feb. 3--Ukraine may join the WTO on unfavorable terms just to beat Russia to it and gain advantage, Russian Finance Minister Alexei Kudrin said Saturday, adding that Russia would only take an offer that guarantees its economic Stability, AFP wrote.
“On the wave of its political relations with the West, Ukraine will most likely join (the WTO) on unfavorable terms just to join ahead of Russia and get some advantage, so I am afraid some Ukrainian industries will be in an unfavorable position,“ he told the First television channel.
Earlier this week, Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko told AFP that Ukraine’s expected membership of the World Trade Organization will give the country leverage in trade disputes with neighboring Russia.
The pro-Western leader said that membership of the WTO would allow Ukraine to negotiate with Russia over “restrictions“ imposed on Ukrainian exports worth up to $3 billion (two billion euros).
Members of the 151-nation global trade body have the right to demand bilateral agreements with aspiring members that can be used to extract trade concessions.
Russia had planned to join the WTO this year but has continually set back its deadline for joining. Ukraine, which submitted its membership in 1993, is the biggest country besides Iran and Russia outside the WTO.
Ukraine’s candidacy is expected to be approved at a WTO meeting next week.