Hong Kong - Hong Kong's leader Wednesday announced the setting up of a task force to monitor the impact of the global economic crisis and find ways to tackle it.

Chief Executive Donald Tsang said the body, which he will chair, will comprise top government officials along with financial experts, economists and representatives of major industries.

Manila - The World Bank committed 10 billion dollars in a standby fund to help member countries of the Association of South-East Asian Nations (ASEAN) weather the global economic crisis, Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo said Wednesday.

Arroyo said the bank issued the commitment after the 10-country ASEAN and its partners Japan, China and South Korea agreed at the weekend to set up a mechanism that would help cash-strapped ASEAN members.

Tokyo - Japan logged its first trade deficit in more than three years in August as rising commodity prices pushed up imports, the government said Wednesday.

The nation's imports jumped 20.2 per cent in August from the same month a year earlier to 6.96 trillion yen (68.02 billion dollars) while exports were almost unchanged at 6.72 trillion yen, up 0.9 per cent, the Finance Ministry said.

Japan's goods and services trade, measured on an international balance of payment basis, ran a deficit of 327.6 billion yen.

Paris - The French government's bank rescue plan passed its first hurdle late Tuesday as lawmakers in the National Assembly approved the 360-billion-euro (490-billion-dollar) measure by a vote of 224 to 23.

The plan, announced Monday by President Nicolas Sarkozy, will make available up to 320 billion euros to guarantee interbank loans and another 40 billion euros for the recapitalization of struggling banks.

Opposition Socialist lawmakers said they supported the plan but abstained from voting because they said it only addressed the financial crisis, not the economic crisis.

Washington - The US government's deficit exceeded projections for the just-ended 2007-08 budget year, hitting a record 455 billion dollars, federal officials announced late Tuesday.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Jim Nussle, director of the Office of Management and Budget, issued a joint statement summarizing the government's revenues and spending for the 12 months through September.

The deficit represents 3.2 per cent of gross domestic product in the 14-trillion-dollar US economy.

The 2006-07 deficit was 161.5 billion dollars, or about 1.2 per cent of GDP.

The previous record deficit was 413 billion dollars in 2004.