Phnom Penh - Cambodia Tuesday urged developed nations to focus on poverty alleviation in less developed economies as part of a strategy to bolster the global economy.

In a speech to the annual International Monetary Fund and the World Bank meetings in Washington dated Monday and received Tuesday, Cambodia's IMF chair Chea Chanto and World Bank chair Aun Porn Moniroth warned that forgetting less developed nations during the financial crisis would have a long-term impact on the future of the global economy.

The statement said globalization meant countries like Cambodia were neither immune nor insignificant in the current crisis.

Dublin - In the first budget since Ireland's economic crash, Finance Minister Brian Lenihan is set to announce Tuesday 2 billion euros (2.7 billion dollars) in cuts aimed at tackling the "most difficult conditions in living memory."

Disappearance of state agencies, tax increases, child benefit cuts and increases in hospital charges are just some of the scares in store in a budget being compared to early Halloween in Ireland.

Washington - The Treasury Department was expected to announced later Tuesday that it will buy stakes worth a total of 250 billion dollars in nine major US banks in a further effort to stabilize financial markets.

Numerous reports citing both banking industry sources and government officials had an announcement expected before Tuesday's US stock market opening on Wall Street.

European governments on Monday announced plans to take similar bank stakes.

Sydney - Around half of the Australian government's 21-billion-Australian-dollar (14.7-billion-US-dollar) surplus will be spent in trying to ward off a recession, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said Tuesday.

To breathe life back into consumer spending habits, around a quarter of the country's adults will receive an early financial Christmas present that Rudd hopes will restore confidence and send them back to the shops.

Washington - Democratic presidential hopeful Barack Obama on Monday called for new measures to spur job growth and help homeowners threatened by foreclosure stay in their homes, as national polls showed the candidate pulling strongly ahead of Republican John McCain as voters focus on the economy.

Washington - The US Treasury official heading up the government's 700-billion-dollar rescue of the financial system said Monday officials were working "quickly but methodically" to implement the plan.

Neel Kashkari outlined the government's progress in the plan to buy up mortgage-backed securities that have weighed on banks' balance sheets, leading to the collapse of several major financial institutions and a freezing of the credit markets over the past several weeks.