Brussels - A European Union summit called to discuss a set of guidelines for reforming the global financial system dragged on Friday, suggesting the bloc's 27 leaders were struggling to find an agreement.

The lunchtime talks in Brussels were still underway at 1450 GMT, nearly one hour after a scheduled final press conference from the French presidency of the EU had been due to take place.

EU leaders were discussing guidelines on how to reform the global financial system in the wake of the current turmoil on world markets.

Brussels - At Friday's European Union summit on the reform of global financial markets, the French government, which holds the EU's rotating presidency, proposed five guidelines for future action which it wants EU states to back at a global summit on November 15.

TOTAL REGULATION: "No financial institution and no market segment must escape regulation or supervision," the paper says.

Hanoi - Vietnamese economy experts and business people said Friday that a 6.5-per-cent growth target set by the government for the country's gross domestic product for 2009 may be unreasonably high.

Vietnam's National Assembly approved the 6.5 per cent target on Thursday.

"It is our administrative responsibility to try our best to reach the target," said Deputy Minister of Trade Nguyen Thanh Bien, who is responsible for exports. "But looking at it from the point of view of an economist, or an entrepreneur, I must say it is difficult to reach."

Hanoi - The global financial crisis might bring economic benefits for countries in South-East Asia, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen said Friday at a regional summit in Hanoi.

"The rich people in Europe, the buyers in America will not buy expensive clothes produced in Europe anymore but the cheaper goods produced in Cambodia and Vietnam," Sen said.

Most of the other businessmen and political leaders at the summit focused on the need to integrate South-East Asian economies to create a larger market more resilient to economic shocks.

Seoul - South Korea's central bank Friday lowered its key interest rate for the third time in less than a month, saying the cut was made necessary by a persisting domestic economic slowdown.

The Bank of Korea's fiscal policy committee decided to cut the benchmark seven-day repo rate by 0.25 per cent to 4 per cent. The cut comes after a dramatic 75-basis-point cut in late October which followed a cut by 25 basis points earlier that month.

Washington, Nov 7: The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has predicted that advanced economies might continue to face recession during the next year, and that their economies would shrink by 0.3 percent in 2009 instead of registering a 0.5 percent growth, as estimated earlier.

The 185-nation financial institution said this in an update of its October World Economic Outlook (WEO) report.