Washington  - The US Federal Reserve on Wednesday said a number of regions are reporting an easing of the country's economic downturn, adding to some of the small signs that the world's largest economy may be stabilizing.

Five of the Federal Reserve's 12 regional banks reported a "moderation in the pace of decline, and several saw signs that activity in some sectors was stabilizing at a low level," according to the central bank's Beige Book, a regional report on the economy.

Amman - Pan-Arab financial institutions and lending agencies opened a two-day meeting Wednesday to look into the global financial crisis and review strategies for the future.

Finance ministers, central bank governors and the heads of the Kuwait-based Arab Fund for Economic and Social Development, the Abu Dhabi-based Arab Monetary Fund and the Arab Institution for Investment Guarantee are taking part in the talks at the Dead Sea resort.

Kiev - New loans to Ukraine's cash-strapped government remain difficult to approve, despite recent attempts at market reforms in country, a senior fund official said Tuesday. "We are continuing our discussions... but at this point is is premature to say, when it might be possible," said Ceyla Pazarbasioglu, International Monetary Fund (IMF) mission head in Ukraine.

Washington - President Barack Obama on Tuesday said the government's efforts to pull the US economy out of a devastating recession were beginning to show signs of progress. "By no means are we out of the woods just yet. But from where we stand, for the very first time, we are beginning to see glimmers of hope," Obama said in prepared remarks released by the White House ahead of a speech on the economy, picking up on the more upbeat tone he first sounded last week.

Beijing - The growth rate of China's foreign exchange reserves has significantly slowed, according to latest figures from the country's central bank. The reserves, the world's largest, rose 16 per cent year-on-year to 1.95 trillion dollars by the end of March, the Peoples' Bank of China indicated on Saturday.

This represents an increase of 7.7 billion dollars for the first quarter, but is 146.2 billion dollars lower than the same period last year.

Beijing - Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said the economy showed better than expected improvement in the first quarter, according to state media on Sunday. Speaking to reporters in Thailand, the premier said that while down on last year's figures, imports and exports were growing on a month-on-month basis, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

Domestic demand and investment in fixed assets also rose, Wen said, indicating that some sectors and enterprises in China were starting to show gradual recovery.