Kiev - Ukrainian President Viktor Yushchenko on Monday announced a one-week delay in early elections, citing a need to give the present government to deal with a financial crisis.

The nationwide vote for a new parliament will take place on December 14, rather than on December 7 as ordered earlier this month, Yushchenko said in a meeting with reporters.

Washington - Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said he intends to ask former secretary of state Colin Powell to serve as an advisor if he wins the White House.

"He will have a role as one of my advisers," Obama said Monday on NBC television. "He's already served in that function, even before he endorsed me."

Powell, a retired general and longtime Republican who advised Ronald Reagan and the first George Bush before becoming the top US diplomat on the current president's first term, said Sunday on Meet the Press that he was supporting Obama.

Dhaka - A total of 107 political parties have applied to register with Bangladesh's Election Commission for eligibility in December's general election, officials said Monday.

The parties applied to meet an extended deadline for the submissions. The submissions were mandated by the country's military- backed interim government, led by Fakhruddin Ahmed. The interim administration was installed in January 2007 against a backdrop of political turmoil.

Jerusalem - Israeli President Shimon Peres gave Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni a two-week extension Monday for forming a new government to replace that headed by outgoing Premier Ehud Olmert.

The extension was given after Livni met with Peres for an hour and 15 minutes Monday morning, to request the additional fortnight and to brief him on her attempts to form a "stable and long-term" government in the initial 28-day period granted her, a statement issued by Peres' office said.

Vienna - Austria's Social Democratic Party (SPOe) and the mainstream conservative People's Party (OeVP) agreed Monday in Vienna to a schedule for coalition talks, after their previous joint cabinet had broken apart in July.

The economic and financial crisis and the death of far-right leader Joerg Haider on October 11 sped up the conservatives' decision to start talks with the Social Democrats, who won the September national elections with 29 per cent of the votes.

Johannesburg - Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said Monday its leader Morgan Tsvangirai would not travel to Swaziland for a regional security meeting on the impasse in Zimbabwe and demanded instead a full regional crisis summit on the issue.

Tsvangirai and President Robert Mugabe were expected in Swaziland on Monday to explain the breakdown in their talks on the formation of a unity government to the Southern African Development Community (SADC) troika on security, chaired by Swazi King Mswati III.

Angola and Tanzania are the other members of the troika.