Belgrade  - Serbia is "wasting respect" by altering the conditions it offered for a loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF), the country's central bank chief said in an interview released Wednesday.

"In the IMF they're surprised at the quick change of position by the Serbian government," Jelasic, a frequent and outspoken critic of government economic policies, told the daily Press.

Paris  - French President Nicolas Sarkozy said on Wednesday it was essential that this week's G20 summit in London take concrete steps to sanction uncooperative tax havens.

"It is unacceptable and incomprehensible if concrete regulations cannot be applied in the coming days or weeks" to offshore tax havens that do not share information about their accounts, Sarkozy told Europe 1 radio.

Hong Kong  - Consumer satisfaction in Hong Kong has dropped to a six-year low based on a survey of 68 goods and services, a Media report said Wednesday.

The report by City University of Hong Kong showed satisfaction among consumers had fallen to 69.1 per cent, and analysts said that could hit consumer spending in the coming months, the South China Morning Post said.

The survey, which is used as a performance indicator for Hong Kong business and involved more than 10,000 interviews, showed 64.3 per cent of people were least satisfied with private housing rentals.

Wellington  - The governor of New Zealand's Reserve Bank, Alan Bollard, rebuked trading banks on Wednesday for raising interest rates on home mortgages even after the central bank dropped its benchmark rate to a record-low 3 per cent last month.

He issued a rare statement repeating that New Zealand's recovery from recession is expected to be very gradual: "In these circumstances we believe the rise in longer-term interest rates is unwarranted and inconsistent with the monetary policy outlook."

Rome - Pope Benedict XVI called Tuesday for the Group of 20 big economies meeting in London this week to address global poverty.

In a message to G20 host British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Benedict called on participants to unite in helping the world's poor.

He said his recent visit to Africa earlier this month had emphasized how much "the weak suffer due to a crisis about which they can do nothing."