Manila - The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said Saturday it was providing its first-ever public sector loan worth 40 million dollars to help Georgia rehabilitate services and infrastructure damaged in the recent conflict with Russia.

The Manila-based ADB said a 32-year concessional loan will be extended to Georgia's Municipal Development Fund, which will in turn provide funds to local governments to rebuild infrastructure, and improve quality, coverage and continuity of critical urban services.

New York  - Urgent moves were afoot Friday to sell embattled Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, the fourth-biggest US investment bank which this week reported record losses, US media reports said.

Lehman was reported to be urgently shopping around for a possible takeover, while there were reports that the government had agreed to subsidize any takeover of the bank, one of many still reeling from the ongoing credit crisis in the United States.

The bank posted its largest-ever quarterly loss of 3.9 billion dollars on Wednesday. Lehman's own shares tumbled more than 40 per cent in Thursday's trading.

Berlin - Deutsche Bank is to pay up to 2.7 billion euros (3.8 billion dollars) for a stake of almost 30 per cent in Deutsche Postbank, valuing it at some 9 billion euros, according to reports in Friday's German press.

According to information received by Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa, Deutsche Post, Postbank's parent company, would receive "more than 2.5 billion euros" for 29.75 per cent of the shares.

The Bank of Rajasthan (BoR) has exposed that it has clinched a memorandum of

Maputo  - Mozambique's government announced this week incentives for banks to expand their services into rural areas where millions of people have yet to open a bank account.

Mozambique's President Armando Guebuza made the announcement Wednesday at the inauguration of Banco Terra, a new donor-backed bank focusing on agriculture.

Guebuza said the move to extend the banking network was in response to a boost in economic activity in rural areas as a result of increased agricultural production and productivity.

More and more cash is circulating in around the countryside but only 36 out of 128 Mozambican districts have access to the banking network.

Wellington  - New Zealand's central bank cut its benchmark interest rate from 8 per cent to 7.5 per cent on Thursday, its second drop in seven weeks after making no reductions for five years.

The Reserve Bank had cut its Official Cash Rate (OCR) to 8 per cent on July 24 after keeping it at 8.25 per cent - one of the highest in the developed world - for 12 months, in a bid to contain inflation within its target range of 1 to 3 per cent.