Oslo/Reykjavik - Iceland should consider replacing its currency with that of neighbouring Norway, an Icelandic economics professor suggested in an interview published Wednesday.

The move was necessary since confidence in the Icelandic central bank has withered in the wake of the recent financial turmoil, Professor Thorolfur Matthiasson of the economics faculty at the University of Iceland told the Bergens Tidende newspaper.

"To get room to maneuver we need a plan A and a plan B," Matthiasson said, noting that one option was to consider joining the European Union and adopting the joint European currency, the euro.

"In the short-term, it may be more realistic to pursue a monetary union with Norway," he added.

New York  - Iceland, a candidate for UN Security Council membership, said Tuesday that small states are well placed to play important political and economic roles while the world's major powers are finding their way out of the current financial crisis.

Iceland is running for a two-year term seat on the 15-nation council, competing with Austria and Turkey for the two seats reserved for European states. The two outgoing European states are Belgium and Italy.

The United Nations General Assembly will on Friday elect five new members to replace the five nations whose terms will expire on December 31.

Reykjavik/Stockholm  - Trading on the Icelandic stock exchange remained suspended Monday, the operator NASDAQ OMX Iceland said.

It had halted trading on Thursday owing to what the operator called "unusual market conditions."

The halt came in the wake of a government takeover of the North Atlantic nation's three main banking groups, including the largest group Kaupthing.

Parliament approved special legislation a week ago giving special powers to the Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority.

London - Officials of the British Treasury are travelling to Iceland Friday to discuss a solution to the growing crisis of British deposits and investments locked up in nationalized Icelandic banks, the British government said.

The Icelandic move to take the country's main banks into public ownership has meant that British private savings and investments are blocked in accounts of Icelandic bank subsidiaries in Britain.

It has sparked sharp exchanges between British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Icelandic counterpart, Geir Haarde.

On Thursday it emerged that 850 million pounds (1.4 billion dollars) of public sector investments by local councils, including the police and transport bodies, could be affected.

Bonn, Germany - Germany's financial market regulator closed down the German branch of Icelandic bank Kaupthing on Thursday, hours after Iceland's largest bank group was put under state control.

Bonn-based federal agency BaFin said Kaupthing was barred from selling assets, making payments or accepting any payments other than settlement of debts.

BaFin said it imposed the moratorium in order to secure assets amid fears the bank would not meet claims by creditors in Germany.

London  - Local authority leaders in Britain were seeking urgent talks with the government Thursday after it emerged that up to 20 councils and London's transport operators have investments of hundreds of millions of pounds with Iceland-based banks.

The local councils, including some in Central London districts, want the government to protect their investments in the same way as it has pledged to guarantee savers' deposits.