Washington  - US lawmakers reached a compromise deal Wednesday on a record economic recovery package, which could allow the plan to pass both houses of Congress before the end of the week.

The Senate and House of Representatives ironed out differences in separate versions of the stimulus bill and knocked the total price tag down to 789 billion dollars, including a mixture of tax cuts and government spending projects to pull the US out of its worst recession in decades.

Washington  - US lawmakers were close to a compromise deal Wednesday on a record economic recovery package, which could allow the plan to pass both houses of Congress before the end of the week.

The Senate and House of Representatives have approved competing versions of the stimulus bill - both totalling more than 800 billion dollars - that include a mixture of tax cuts and government spending projects to pull the US out of its worst recession in decades.

Budapest  - Hungary's construction industry is to be given an 8-billion-dollar shot in the arm over the next year and a half in a bid to protect jobs and boost the country's flagging economy, the government announced on Wednesday.

Minister for National Development and Economy Gordon Bajnai told reporters that the money, over 1.8 trillion Hungarian forints, would be used to support 636 major projects over the next 18 months.

Paris  - After a more pessimistic assessment of economic prospects by the International Monetary Fund, the International Energy Agency (IEA) on Wednesday again revised downward global oil demand for 2009.

"Global oil demand is now projected at 84.7 mb/d (million barrels per day) in 2009," the IEA said in its Monthly Oil Report issued in Paris.

This figure is 1.1 per cent lower than the oil demand for last year and 570,000 barrels per day lower than the IEA's previous forecast for 2009, which was issued in January.

Wellington  - The New Zealand government announced Wednesday a 500-million-New-Zealand-dollar (about 260 million US dollars) stimulus package for the economy, which has been in recession for a year.

Prime Minister John Key, whose centre-right administration was elected in November, said a number of state housing, road and education sector projects would be accelerated in a bid to preserve jobs as the global financial crisis continues to impact on the local economy.

Brasilia  - Brazilian Foreign Minister Celso Amorim warned Tuesday that protectionism is "a poison, and not a remedy" for the ongoing economic and financial crisis, and he warned that Brazil will turn to the World Trade Organization (WTO) to prevent the "propagation of protectionist measures."

"We are certain that propagating protectionism is not a remedy, on the contrary, it is a poison that makes the situation even worse," Amorim said.