Berlin  - German Chancellor Angela Merkel denied Thursday any bias in plans to spend billions of euros on repairing roads and schools to jolt the flagging economy back to life.

The funding, for projects which have already been waiting approval, would be spread fairly to all regions, she said after meeting premiers of the 16 states.

Merkel had triggered a cry of protest when she said in an interview this week that it was time to help western Germany, 19 years after massive federal spending started to modernize formerly communist eastern Germany.

Washington - The world's largest grouping of financial institutions expects the global economy to contract in 2009 as the effects of a massive financial crisis spread from wealthy nations to developing countries.

The Institute of International Finance predicted a 0.4-per-cent decline in growth next year, an even more pessimistic forecast than other global financial institutions, according to an economic outlook released Thursday.

Washington  - US President George W Bush Bush is weighing whether to endorse a structured bankruptcy for ailing automakers to prevent a "disorderly collapse" of the industry, the White House said Thursday.

"The president is not going to allow a disorderly collapse of the companies," spokeswoman Dana Perino said. "That is not an option."

"There's an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing," she added. "I think that's what we would be talking about."

Santiago - The economies of Latin American and Caribbean countries are forecast to grow a collective 1.9 per cent next year amid the global downturn, a commission on the region's economic affairs said Thursday.

This year, the national economies of the region with 500 million people are to gain 8 per cent, the group Cepal said in the Chilean capital.

Singapore  - The World Bank and Singapore signed an agreement Thursday to set up an urban hub in the city-state to provide and facilitate advice and technical assistance to developing countries on urban management, water and resource management, city financing and urban design.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick and Singapore Foreign Minister George Yeo signed the agreement, under which the two sides said they would collaborate to meet growing demand from developing countries for technical advice, especially on urban management.

Moscow  - Russia set out its development goals until 2012 this year, but the four-year budget plan hardly matched reality - something which even the Finance Ministry had to admit.

Economists have halved the country's growth forecast as the real cost of the credit freeze and a dive in the price of Russia's main export commodities set in, but Moscow appears to be rolling ahead with an expansive foreign policy and ambitious domestic infrastructure and social spending.

While governments all over the world scrambled to legislate bail- outs for flagship sectors in distress, Moscow's initial reaction was to cast the country as immune to the crisis.