Berlin  - Heads of the three parties supporting German Chancellor Angela Merkel gathered in Berlin Monday for make-or-break talks on a fresh round of stimulus for the weakening German economy.

The Social Democrats (SPD) and Christian Social Union (CSU) have been wrangling for weeks with Merkel's Christian Democratic Union (CDU) over the package, with each of them eager to piggy-back long- standing party policies onto the huge surge of state spending.

Seoul - South Korea's central bank on Friday lowered its key interest rate to 2.5 per cent, the fifth cut in three months, to help kick-start the country's economy.

The Bank of Korea's monetary policy committee lowered the benchmark seven-day repurchase rate by 0.5 per cent, its lowest level on record.

"Domestic economic activity is slackening at a rapid pace," the bank said.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama warned Thursday that the recession in the United States could grow "dramatically worse" and last for years unless "bold" policies are enacted to reverse the trend.

Unemployment could rise into double digits and the US economy could lose 1 trillion dollars of its capacity as the country copes with the poorest economic conditions since the Great Depression of the 1930s, Obama said.

Singapore - French bank BNP Paribas has predicted a faster Asian economic recovery next year, citing aggressive government spending and region-wide interest rate cuts, according to a news report Thursday.

The scale of the global policy response, monetary and fiscal, should ensure the recovery is more V-shaped, indicating a steep rise after a decline, than a slower, U-shaped recovery, said BNP Paribas economist Richard Iley.

Jakarta- Indonesia's central bank on Wednesday cut its benchmark interest rate by 50 basis points to 8.75 per cent to support growth amid a global economic slowdown.

The cut was higher than expected after Bank Indonesia reduced the rate by 25 basis points in December.

"For 2009 our monetary policy should pay more attention to efforts to support economic growth while continuing to rein in inflation and stabilise the financial sector," Bank Indonesia governor Boediono, who, like many Indonesians goes by only one name, said in a statement.

Bank Indonesia raised its key interest rate six times during 2008 to 9.5 per cent to curb inflationary pressures.

Manila - A new multilateral initiative was launched Tuesday to boost food security in South Asia by substantially increasing crop yields and income of millions of farmers in the region, the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI) said.

According to the Philippines-based IRRI, the Cereal Systems Initiative for South Asia (CSISA) aims to produce an additional 5 million tons of grain annually and increase the income of about 6 million farmers by at least 350 dollars.