Spanish infrastructure firm Abertis will focus on airport privatisations at home before considering assets coming on the block in debt-ridden economies like Portugal and Greece, its chief executive said. Abertis operates tollways as well as airport and telecom assets and is seeking fresh investments to ensure growth in the face of a maturing asset portfolio.

The German government on Wednesday played down reports that tax cuts, one of the main platforms of Chancellor Angela Merkel's allies, were back on the agenda after being shelved because of the financial crisis. Government spokesman Steffen Seibert said there was so far no agreement within the centre-right coalition on a timetable for tax cuts,

G20 agriculture ministers considered French proposals to tighten regulation of commodity markets and set up emergency reserves as they gathered on Wednesday for a first-ever summit that aims to tackle rising food prices. Paris has made tougher commodity trading rules a priority of its 2011 presidency of the Group of 20 leading economies. President Nicolas

Russia and the European Union signed a deal agreeing conditions for the resumption of EU fresh vegetable imports to Russia, which banned them because of a deadly E.coli outbreak, both sides said on Wednesday. The deal followed bitter recriminations over a halt on trade that earned EU producers some 600 mln euros ($860 mln) last

Israeli leaders holed up in a new underground nuclear bunker on Wednesday as part of annual manoeuvres to prepare for a possible missile war with Iran, Syria and their Lebanese and Palestinian guerrilla allies. Officials said it was the first time the security cabinet, headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, had tested the "National Management

Greece has clear objectives that it needs to achieve if it is to overcome its debt crisis and there is no alternative to meeting those goals, the European Commission said on Wednesday. "There is no alternative. We have a plan, now it's time to act on it, it's time to implement it. There is no

Hedge fund managers are sifting through the rubble of the deepening Greek debt crisis to find money-making opportunities, though political uncertainty makes it a risky business. Executives at the annual GAIM conference in Monaco said they were eyeing Greek sovereign or corporate debt, while emerging markets also offered a safer haven away from worries that

Andreas Moleskis, Head of the Secretariat of the Cypriot EU Presidency, resigned on Wednesday over allegations of nepotism for a job appointment in Brussels. Moleskis was criticised by Auditor General Chrystalla Yiorkadji during a parliamentary watchdog committee hearing on Tuesday after the newspaper Politis suggested that the recruitment process had been rigged. It also alleged

The ghost of Lehman Brothers stalks European financial markets as central bankers warn a Greek debt default could trigger even worse turmoil than the collapse of the U.S. investment bank. But there are reasons to think the damage could be contained more easily. Investors are better prepared than they were for Lehman's bankruptcy in September

The Greek government will approve its new austerity package on Wednesday after it survived a confidence vote, clearing the first hurdle in a battle to secure emergency loans and avert the euro zone's first sovereign debt default. Prime Minister George Papandreou's reshuffled cabinet aims to get parliament approval for a package of spending cuts, tax