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DOHA — Two of the world's largest energy producers, Qatar and Russia, vowed on Wednesday to increase trade ties at a time when the emirate is facing an economic boycott from neighbouring states.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made the commitment after a "lengthy" meeting in Doha with his Qatari counterpart, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Abdul Rahman Al Thani, and before that, the country's Emir Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani.

"We are committed to bolstering trade and economic ties," Lavrov told reporters afterwards.

He added that Moscow "attached great importance" to economic cooperation, including energy, between the two countries, a sentiment echoed by Sheikh Mohammed.

Russia and Qatar are two of the world's top four gas producing countries.

Both are also major oil producers, and last year Qatar spent billions on taking a stake in Russia's state-controlled oil company, Rosneft. 

Qatar has turned to expanding its economic ties after a group of countries led by Saudi-Arabia and United Arab Emirates cut off political and trade links with Doha on June 5, initiating the Gulf's worst political crisis in years.

The bloc accuses Qatar of supporting extremism, a charge the emirate denies.

On the crisis itself, Sheikh Mohammed said there had been little change and accused Saudi and others of ignoring Qatari calls for dialogue.

"Now we have reached 90 days of the crisis we are still in the same position," he said.

"We haven't seen any change or development in reaching the end of the crisis."

He accused Saudi Arabia and its partners of ignoring "on at least 12 different occasions" Qatari calls for talks on resolving the diplomatic impasse.

Lavrov — who has also visited Kuwait and the UAE as part of his Middle East tour — called for all parties to find a solution.

He said the disputing countries should work with regional mediators Kuwait to resolve the crisis.

"We are convinced that there's a need to seek a solution by searching for mutually beneficial approaches through dialect," said the Russian foreign minister.

"It's in our interests for the GCC to be united and strong," he said, referring to the Gulf Cooperation Council comprised of Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE.

ASTANA, Kazakhstan — Kazakhstan inaugurated on Tuesday a new internationally-controlled uranium fuel bank seen as potentially important in curbing nuclear proliferation and reducing regional security tensions.

The bank is capable of storing enough low-enriched uranium fuel to light up a large city for three years and it is hoped that access to the fuel will dissuade countries from launching their own nuclear enrichment programmes. 

Iran's nuclear programme set off years of tensions across the region and with the West amid concerns it was looking to build an atomic bomb.

The bank "will function under the complete control of the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA]", which operates under the auspices of the United Nations, President Nursultan Nazarbayev said at the ceremony held in the capital Astana.

The new low-enriched uranium bank is located over 800 kilometres away in the northeastern town of Oskemen.

Having given up its own nuclear weapons following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kazakhstan portrays itself as a key player in nuclear diplomacy. It is the world's top producer of raw uranium.

The Central Asian country hosted talks on Iran's nuclear programme in 2013.

The IAEA called the opening of the facility, which does not yet contain any fuel, a "key milestone" offering confidence to countries about the availability of nuclear power fuel.

Built at a cost of $150 million, the 880 square-metre structure will contain up to 90 tonnes of low-enriched uranium that is suitable to make fuel for a typical light-water reactor, or one that uses ordinary water.

A reserve of this size would be able to power a large city for three years, according to the IAEA. 

Billionaire philanthropist Warren Buffet provided $50 million in startup cash for the bank.

SINGAPORE — Crude prices recovered slightly in Asian trade on Tuesday a day after heavy falls caused by the impact of monster storm Harvey on a key US oil-producing region.

Harvey battered into Texas on Friday as a Category Four hurricane, tearing down homes and businesses on the Gulf Coast, and triggering massive floods.

The storm caused the closure of many oil platforms in the Gulf, and about a fifth of the region's oil output remained shut down, according to US authorities.

With markets Monday fearing demand for crude could be hit, US benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) sank $1.30, while Brent finished 52 cents lower.

But in early afternoon trade in Asia Tuesday, WTI edged up 22 cents to $46.79 while Brent added 17 cents to $52.06.

But analysts said prices are expected to remain subdued as the shutdown of oil refineries would lead to higher crude stockpiles.

"Given that a significant portion of refining capacity in the US Gulf Coast is shut, we are likely to witness a situation of high domestic crude stockpiles, which will put pressure on prices," Amit Musaddy of energy consultancy Trifecta told AFP.

A total of 105 of the 737 offshore oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated before the storm made landfall on Friday, according to the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement. By Monday, 98 remained closed. The Gulf of Mexico alone accounts for 20 per cent of US production.

SEOUL — Lawyers for the jailed heir to the Samsung empire filed an appeal against his conviction on Monday as South Korean media divided on the ruling that put the country's top business leader behind bars.

Lee Jae-yong, the de-facto head of Samsung Electronics, was found guilty last week of bribing South Korea's ousted president Park Geun-hye and sentenced to five years in prison.

The official website of the Seoul Central District Court showed that Lee's lawyer Kim Jong-hoon filed an appeal on Monday but gave no further details.

Prosecutors have also said they will appeal the court ruling — to seek a harsher punishment for Lee.

A Samsung Group spokeswoman declined to comment.

But another Samsung Electronics vice chairman, Kwon Oh-hyun, called the situation "regrettable" in a statement to employees of the world's biggest smartphone maker, the Yonhap news agency reported.

"We should all steadily wait until the truth is revealed," it cited him as saying, urging them to "gather power and wisdom to overcome the unprecedented challenge".

South Korea's media have divided over the unprecedented imprisonment of the country's most powerful tycoon, with some newspapers condemning the ruling and others accusing their rivals of "kneeling" before the rich.

Samsung is by far the biggest of the chaebols, as the family-controlled conglomerates that dominate Asia's fourth-largest economy are known, with its revenues equivalent to around a fifth of the country's GDP.

Chaebols were instrumental in South Korea's economic rise, but have long had murky connections with political authorities and are also known to wield considerable influence on the media, potentially courtesy of their giant advertising budgets.

The JoongAng Daily, a company with close family ties to the Samsung Group, said in an editorial that an appeal by Lee would have "a good case".

The country's top-selling Chosun Ilbo Daily, which is conservative in outlook, added: "The company faced retaliation if it rejected the president's request and faced punishment for bribery if it gave in."

Samsung was the first South Korean company to  emerge as a top global firm and it would be "worrisome" if the verdict proved "a negative turning point" for it, the paper said, unable to make key business decisions for years with its leader in jail.

But liberal papers heralded the ruling and slammed other media outlets for siding with the country's rich.

The Hankyoreh paper expressed concerns about the "amicable attitude towards Lee and Samsung" from "conservative media and business papers".

Their argument that evidence was lacking, it said, was "irrational", adding: "It is hoped they will no longer ask to become the press that kneeled before the chaebol."

LONDON — An already weak dollar dropped to 16-month lows against a basket of major currencies on Monday, as flooding caused by Tropical Storm Harvey paralysed the United States' fourth-biggest city and drove worries about a hit to the economy. 

The greenback had already fallen sharply on Friday, after US Federal Reserve Janet Yellen failed to mention monetary policy at the closely watched Jackson Hole meeting in Wyoming. Investors saw this as evidence that Yellen was comfortable with their rate hike expectations — currently only one is priced in by the end of next year. 

The euro, meanwhile, climbed to a two-and-a-half year high close to $1.20, extending gains made at the end of last week after European Central Bank (ECB) President Mario Draghi held back from talking down the buoyant currency at the same meeting. 

The dollar index — which measures the US currency against six major rivals with the euro given the heaviest weighting — was down 0.3 per cent by 12:00GMT at 92.501, having earlier fallen to as low as 92.372, its weakest since early May 2016.

"Markets will be closely watching the damage from Harvey and its effect on the US economy," wrote FXPro analysts in a note to clients, pointing out that Hurricane Katrina had in 2005 halved US economic growth in the quarter that followed. 

A public holiday in global foreign exchange capital London kept the market subdued, with most currencies trading in narrow ranges. 

By (12:00GMT), the euro was up just 0.1 per cent at $1.1924 , having touched $1.19665 in Asian trade, its highest since January 2015. It was on track for a sixth straight month of gains against the dollar — its best run in five years. 

"This is about what [Draghi] did not say," said Commerzbank currency strategist Esther Reichelt, in Frankfurt. "He does not seem to be overly concerned with the current euro levels, which is the market's justification to move the euro higher."

The euro was broadly expected to remain firm, at least in the short term, with investor focus on the ECB and whether it announces plans to reduce debt-buying at its September policy meeting next week. 

The greenback slipped 0.1 per cent against the safe-haven Japanese yen to 109.30 yen, clear of the four-month low of 108.605 touched on August 18.

The pound was slightly higher on the day at $1.2916, having briefly touched a 13-day peak of $1.2946. 

SAN ANTONIO — US gasoline prices surged to a three-week high on Thursday, as Hurricane Harvey moved across the Gulf of Mexico and threatened to strike the heart of the country's oil refining industry when it comes ashore in Texas this weekend.

Communities in the path of the quickly strengthening storm began evacuating and energy firms shut refineries and offshore oil and gas platforms. Just under 10 per cent of offshore US Gulf of Mexico crude output capacity was shut down on Thursday, government data showed.

Harvey has been forecast to come ashore as a Category 3 hurricane, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) said, the third most powerful on the Saffir-Simpson scale, which would make it the strongest to hit the US mainland in 12 years. 

Such storms pack maximum sustained winds of up to 207 kilometre per hour and Harvey would be the first Category 3 hurricane to make land in the United States since Hurricane Wilma struck Florida in 2005.

The NHC expects Harvey to move slowly over Texas and linger over the state for days, dumping as much 0.7m of rain on some areas.

Harvey will cause a storm surge that will flood parts of the Texas coast as it makes landfall, the NHC said in an advisory.
"I hope people will listen to forecasters when they say 'beware of flash floods,'" Mayor Joe McComb said. "Flash floods can come quickly, and they can be deadly."

The city, a major oil refining centre, has not issued any evacuation orders, he told reporters at a news conference, but its emergency operations centre has been activated. 

The NHC expects the storm to come ashore along the central Texas coast, an area that includes Corpus Christi and Houston, home to some of the biggest refineries in the country. 

More than 45 per cent of the country's refining capacity is along the US Gulf Coast, and nearly a fifth of the nation's crude oil is produced offshore in the region. 

Harvey has already disrupted US oil supplies in the region. 

Two oil refineries in Corpus Christi were shutting down ahead of the storm, and concern that Harvey could cause shortages in fuel supply drove benchmark gasoline prices to a three-week high. 

One other refinery reduced output and other were considering shutting.

Prices for gasoline in spot physical markets on the Gulf Coast rose even more, hitting a one-year high. 

Profit margins for refineries producing gasoline rose by over 12 percent, on course for their biggest daily percentage gain in six months, according to Reuters data.

The two refineries that have shut have combined capacity to refine more than 450,000 barrels per day of crude.

Energy companies including Royal Dutch Shell, Anadarko Petroleum and Exxon Mobil have evacuated staff from offshore oil and gas platforms in the storm's path.

Around 167,000 barrels per day, or 9.6 per cent, of crude output capacity in the Gulf was shut, the US government said.

The storm could also bring flooding to inland shale oil fields in Texas that pump millions of barrels per day of crude.

Norwegian oil firm Statoil ASA said on Thursday it would evacuate staff from the Eagle Ford shale region in South Texas. The firm will close wells if there is a flooding risk, a spokesman said.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott declared a state of disaster on Wednesday for 30 counties, authorising the use of state resources to prepare for the storm.

Coastal cities and counties distributed sandbags to residents as some businesses boarded up windows, and residents flocked to grocery stores to stock up on supplies, local media reported.

BEIRUT — Proposed tighter US sanctions on Hizbollah have been altered enough to allay fears of major damage to Lebanon's economy, a sign Washington is taking concerns about Lebanese stability seriously, banking and political sources said. 

But banking figures told Reuters Lebanese authorities should not be complacent as US President Donald Trump's future stance on Iran and its allies cannot be predicted, and the bill won't be discussed and voted on until autumn when Congress reconvenes.

When drafts said to be US plans for extended anti-Hizbollah legislation circulated in Lebanon earlier this year, local media warned of dire consequences for Lebanon's fragile economy and fractious sectarian politics.

The main concern for Lebanese authorities is that US correspondent banks — which face huge fines if found to be dealing with sanctioned people or companies — might deem Lebanese banks too risky to do business with.

This would undermine the economy, which relies on dollar deposits transferred from expatriate Lebanese.

Lebanon's government, central bank and private banks have lobbied US politicians and banks hard this year — and continue to do so — to persuade Washington to balance its tough anti-Hizbollah stance with the need to preserve stability. 

Their main message has been that the last thing needed by the United States, which backs the Lebanese army in its fight against the terror group Daesh and other militants spilling over from Syria, is another failed state in the Middle East.

Their efforts may have worked. The draft law submitted to Congress in late July does not include the main elements that had caused what one banking source called "anxiety" in Beirut. 

Financial sources told Reuters the proposed anti-Hizbollah legislation, when compared with earlier draft proposals, is more specific about who could be targeted, and is no longer seen as affecting the whole of Lebanon's Shiite Muslim population.

Iran-backed Hizbollah major foe of US

The powerful Iran-backed, Shiite Hizbollah is in Lebanon's delicate, national unity government but classified as a terrorist group by Washington. US officials say Hizbollah is funded not just by Iran but by networks of Lebanese and international individuals and businesses.

The US Hizbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2015 aimed to sever the group's funding routes around the world, and in July Republican and Democratic US lawmakers proposed amendments to strengthen it. 

Banking sources said the 2017 amendments do not significantly tighten the original legislation, the initial shock of which Lebanon has absorbed, and are unlikely to have a major impact if they become law.

"So far, Lebanese authorities have been successful in limiting the fallout of US sanctions on Lebanese banks," said Mathias Angonin, an analyst at Moody's rating agency. 

Lobbying 

The amendments differ in key ways from draft plans believed to have originated with US lawmakers earlier this year. Banking and political sources attribute this to Beirut's lobbying. 

"It is definitely toned down compared to the one we saw when we were there, so obviously our arguments have been taken into consideration ... It is more targeted," Yassine Jaber, a member of parliament who led a political delegation to Washington in mid-May after the drafts appeared, told Reuters.

Banks like sanctions regulations to be specific about targets to avoid unexpected fines and avoid excluding people from the banking system unnecessarily. 

Unlike the drafts, the amendments do not target the Shiite Amal movement of parliament speaker Nabih Berri for investigation, according to a publicly available copy of the legislation seen by Reuters. 

Targeting both Amal and Hizbollah and their associates — the two parties representing Lebanon's Shiite population — risked marginalising a large section of society, banking and political sources said. 

The current proposals would give the US  president the power to decide who should be sanctioned instead of lower-level staff. 

They also require sanctions be placed on people providing "significant" financial, material or technological support to Hizbollah. The word "significant" was not in the earlier draft.

Hizbollah's involvement in Syria's civil war, where it fights alongside Syrian President Bashar Assad, is a cause of political tension in Beirut, straining Lebanon's policy of "dissociation" from regional conflicts. 

Hizbollah leader Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah has said US attempts to weaken it will not work. 

High stakes 

With one of the highest debt-to-GDP ratios in the world, growth battered by six years of war in adjacent Syria and a government struggling to agree vital reforms, Lebanon's economy is fragile.

Lebanese banks underpin the economy. Using money deposited by expatriate Lebanese, local banks buy government debt, financing the state's expanding budget deficit and debt.

"There's never been a problem with [this system] but it's a high stakes system," said Toby Iles of Fitch rating agency.

Deposits could dry up if correspondent banks deem Lebanon too risky and stop clearing dollar transactions for local banks.

Financial sources say confidence in the central bank's ability to apply regulation is strong. But Lebanon remains a politically risky country and correspondent banks have in recent years become more risk-averse globally, as US anti-terrorism and anti-money laundering regulation has increased.

ISTANBUL/ANKARA — Saudi Telecom Company (STC) is in the lead to buy the 55 per cent of fixed-line operator Turk Telekom owned by Oger Telecom, sources said, adding that the Turkish government could acquire the $3.9 billion stake if those talks fail.

The potential deal comes as Oger, Turk Telekom's biggest shareholder, faces increasing pressure from creditor banks after missing debt repayments of $290 million in both September and March on a $4.75 billion loan.

Three sources said that STC is seen as the most likely buyer, with two of the sources saying that the Turkish government could consider using a public institution to acquire the holding if the talks fail.

"Currently only STC shows a clear interest in the acquisition," one of the sources said, adding that there are several interested Gulf companies but only STC has entered negotiations.

"The government may play an active role as a buyer with a public institution, in the case that STC does not buy," the source said, asking not to be identified because the information has not been made public.

No one was available to comment at Oger's offices in Turkey. STC declined to comment, as did Turk Telekom, while Turkish government officials were not immediately available for comment.

Oger is a unit of Saudi Arabian construction giant Saudi Oger, which itself is facing a multibillion-dollar debt restructuring. STC already holds an indirect 35 per cent stake in Oger's Turkish arm. 

The government, which ultimately holds nearly 32 per cent of Turk Telekom, wants the operator of the national telecoms grid to be owned by a financially stable company. 

"Turk Telekom is a strategic and important company. It will not be left to its fate for sure. Public institutions would intervene when needed and this option is still a matter of consideration," another source said.

Big loan, weak lira

Oger's creditors want the sale to be completed by September to retain the loan's classification as "performing" and avoid an increase in bad loan provisions, another source said.

"If the debt is no longer a performing loan, banks will have to raise provisions and their profitability will be put under pressure," the source said. "Banks are meeting with independent auditors to keep this credit as a performing loan until the end of the year".

As part of a 2013 debt refinancing, Oger took out a $4.75 billion syndicated loan, one of the biggest ever in Turkey. However, it has struggled to repay the debt as the Turkish lira has been hammered by security concerns and political worries.

Since 2013, the dollar has gained about 86 per cent against the lira, nearly doubling the cost of the debt in local currency terms.

Oger's roughly 30 creditor banks include Turkey's Akbank and Garanti, with $1.5 billion and $951 million of exposure respectively. Isbank, Turkey's largest listed lender, has 1.9 billion lira ($532 million) of exposure.

Though the Turkish government has the final word on changes in Turk Telekom's ownership, Oger's creditors also have a say in any potential sale because it pledged the Telekom shares as collateral for the 2013 loan.

Turkey's Treasury sent Oger a written demand earlier this year after Oger failed to meet the two debt payments and asked the company to meet its debt obligations, Reuters reported last month.
Last month, the government had stepped in and asked some banks to find prospective buyers for the stake.

JACKSON HOLE, WYOMING — The European Central Bank's (ECB) ultra-easy monetary policy is working and the euro zone's economic recovery has taken hold even if more time is needed to lift inflation to the bank's 2 per cent target, ECB President Mario Draghi said on Friday. 

Speaking at the US Federal Reserve's (Fed) annual conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, Draghi said he was confident inflation would eventually reach the target as output rises and the labour market tightens, though he urged patience on that front.

While ECB stimulus has pushed euro zone growth to over 2 per cent, the fastest since 2011, inflation is expected to undershoot the bank's target at least through 2019, a dilemma for its policymakers who, unlike those at the Fed, only have an inflation mandate.

"On one hand, we are confident that as the output gap closes inflation will continue converging to its objective over the medium term," Draghi said in response to a question after his speech. "On the other hand, we have to be very patient because the labour market factors and the low productivity are not factors that are going to disappear anytime soon."

ECB policymakers are running out of time to resolve this dilemma as they have agreed to decide this autumn whether to extend or wind down the bank's 2.3 trillion euro ($2.7 billion) asset purchase programme, which is due to expire in December. 

"We have not seen yet the self-sustained convergence of inflation to the medium-term objective," Draghi said. "Therefore a significant degree of monetary accommodation is still warranted," he added, repeating the bank's longstanding line on stimulus. The euro soared to its highest level in more than two years against the dollar on Friday on Draghi's initial comments, which did not mention monetary policy, but eased slightly after his more dovish comments.

Protectionism threat

But Draghi warned that while stimulus has boosted economies around the world, the growing tide of protectionism threatened to thwart trade, cap productivity and ultimately hold back growth.

He acknowledged that globalisation has left pockets of society on the fringes, fostering distrust to threatening long-held trust in openness and international cooperation. 

Draghi's comments came as the Trump administration advocates a more protectionist approach, threatening to renegotiate or pull out of trade deals including the North American Free Trade Agreement with Canada and Mexico.

"A turn towards protectionism would pose a serious risk for continued productivity growth and potential growth in the global economy," Draghi said in his speech. "To foster a dynamic global economy we need to resist protectionist urges."

Although the euro zone economy is growing for the 17th straight quarter, big gaps have opened between the bloc's core and peripheral members, and between the top and bottom tiers of society, fuelling social tension and discontent with the European project.

While German's unemployment rate is now under 4 per cent, the jobless rate in Spain is still over 17 per cent, more than twice the level before the 2007-2009 global financial crisis. Youth unemployment is even more alarming: 45 per cent of young Greeks and 38 per cent of Spanish youth are out of work.

In Italy, where anti-euro, populist parties are making headway ahead of an election next year, economic output is still well below its pre-crisis peak, fuelling arguments that the constraints of the euro keep the country in a vicious austerity spiral with little hope of a sustained rebound.

"Without stronger potential growth, the cyclical recovery we are now seeing globally will ultimately converge downwards to those slower growth rates," Draghi said.

Draghi defended global financial regulation, which was bolstered after the crisis, picking up on the theme raised by Fed Chair Janet Yellen in a speech to the Jackson Hole conference earlier on Friday.

"Given the large collective costs that we have observed, there is never a good time for lax regulation," Draghi said. "But there are times when it is especially inopportune."

"Specifically, when monetary policy is accommodative, lax regulation runs the risk of stoking financial imbalances," he added.