Washington - The daughter of assassinated president John F Kennedy, Caroline Kennedy, has expressed interest in taking the New York Senate seat that will be vacated by Hillary Clinton.

New York Senator Chuck Schumer said he had spoken with Kennedy and confirmed widespread reports that she wanted to replace Clinton, who is leaving to become secretary of state for president-elect Barack Obama.

Budapest = The Hungarian parliament on Monday voted by 209 votes to 171 in favour of the government's 2009 budget bill.

Although the result was expected, it nevertheless put an end to months of debate and speculation over the exact details of the budget and the viability of Hungary's unpopular socialist government.

Finance Minister Janos Veres said the government's latest economic forecast had taken into account possible worst-case-scenarios.

Warsaw - Polish President Lech Kaczynski vetoed a bill on Monday that would cut early retirement for 750,000 people amid pressure from trade unions.

The lower house of parliament approved the bill last month, which would reduce the number of people eligible for early pensions from more than 1 million to some 250,000.

"On the basis of arbitrary criteria ... for some it gives early pensions while not for others," Kaczynski said, calling the bill "unjust."

Athens

Johannesburg  - The US ambassador to Zimbabwe on Sunday accused President Robert Mugabe's regime of splurging on expensive presents for party loyalists, and leaving the job of caring for desperate Zimbabweans to Mugabe's so-called "enemies" in the West.

In a letter published in South Africa's Sunday Times newspaper, James McGee accused the regime of forking out on cars for government ministers and plasma televisions for judges while Zimbabweans were being snuffed out in large numbers by cholera, an easily preventable and treatable disease.

Mugabe's regime accuses Western sanctions of causing the country's nosedive, although the sanctions are aimed only at his ruling clique.

Bangkok  - The vote for Thailand's next premier at an extraordinary session of parliament on Monday will be very close with the outcome still far from certain, politicians predicted Sunday.

Parliament will reconvene to vote on the 27th prime minister, now a toss-up between Democrat party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva and Puea Paendin party leader Police General Pracha Promnok.

Democrats claim to have secured some 260 of the 438 seats in the Lower House, enough to win Abhisit, 44, the premiership, but the real numbers will not be known until after the vote Monday morning.

"It will be a close call," predicted Kraisak Choonhavan, a senior member of the Democrat party.