London - British Prime Minister Gordon Brown on Tuesday called a top-level meeting to discuss government proposals to stabilize the banking system after a dramatic slump in bank shares on the London stock market.

The meeting came within hours of the return from the European Union's finance ministers meeting in Luxembourg of Britain's Chancellor of the Exchequer, Alistair Darling.

Berlin - German Chancellor Angela Merkel called Tuesday for better arrangements to ensure that future crises in the financial sector can be averted.

A new system needed to be developed involving all major players in the sector, she said in an address to parliament on the banking crisis which has engulfed Europe.

Describing the global financial crisis as unprecedented, Merkel said it had confirmed many people's suspicions of greed and irresponsible speculation.

Dublin - The Irish economy is to contract more than previously thought in 2008, according to the latest quarterly report released on Tuesday by the Economic and Social Research Institute (ESRI), a Dublin-based think tank.

The ESRI revised downward its estimate that Ireland's gross national product (GNP) would contract by 0.4 per cent in 2008, saying that it now predicted a 1.3-per-cent fall.

A country's GNP is its economic output without the contribution made by multinational companies.

Ireland's GNP would fall by 0.7 per cent in 2009, the ESRI said.

Rome - The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) on Tuesday called for an urgent review worldwide of biofuel policies and subsidies to ensure they protect poor farmers and do not impact negatively on global food security.

"Biofuels present both opportunities and risks. The outcome would depend on the specific context of the country and the policies adopted," FAO Director General Jacques Diouf said in a statement released by the Rome-based agency.

"Current policies tend to favour producers in some developed countries over producers in most developing countries. The challenge is to reduce or manage the risks while sharing the opportunities more widely," Diouf added.

Karachi - The Pakistani rupee sank to a new record low of 78.80 against the dollar Tuesday amid concerns over depleting foreign exchange reserves.

The rupee traded at 78.60-80 in the open market against the dollar, while in the inter-bank market it fell to 78.50-80.

The central State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) received 500 million dollars from the Asian Development Bank on Saturday, but last week's decline of around 700 million dollars in foreign reserves continued to cause panic on the markets.

Luxembourg - The European Union's finance ministers were braced for confrontation with the financial sector Tuesday as they met in Luxembourg to discuss the financial crisis in general and executive pay in particular.

But their talks threatened to spill over into mutual recriminations after a weekend of shock national banking bail-outs and precipitous stock-market falls.