Berlin  - The room in Berlin's Ritz hotel was pleasantly warm as Russia's prime minister met Friday with European gas company executives intent on resolving the Russian-Ukrainian gas dispute.

Vladimir Putin emphasized his desire for a solution, although his messages were mixed. "Together, we need to work out how we can support our Ukrainian friends," the Russian premier said during the spontaneously agreed meeting in central Berlin's luxury hotel.

Washington  - US president-elect Barack Obama on Friday called for urgent action to stem the country's economic decline, lending his backing to a 825-billion-dollar stimulus package introduced by lawmakers a day earlier.

But Obama warned that even with a massive injection of public cash into the world's largest economy "things could get worse before they get better."

"I want everybody to be realistic about this," Obama said in a speech at a factory in Ohio.

Berlin  - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said his talks in Berlin Friday with three key western gas importers were "good."

Speaking after a lengthy meeting with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Putin said he expected a settlement of the dispute and an end to the blockade that has cut westward supplies of Siberian gas via Ukraine.

Merkel told reporters there might be a test phase where gas pumping was resumed under monitoring by European Union inspectors.

Gaza City/Tel Aviv  - After three weeks of relentless Israeli air strikes and two weeks of heavy ground fighting, Gazans, exhausted, are hoping the end may be near, but also afraid to face the devastation around them once a truce is in place.

A huge rehabilitation effort will be needed to rebuild the buildings and infrastructure destroyed in what a military spokesman in Tel Aviv said Friday were well over 2,000 air strikes throughout the strip over the past three weeks.

Berlin  - Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin appealed Friday in Berlin to big western energy companies to pay hundreds of millions of dollars to ensure a resumption of shipments of Siberian gas.

He later began an hour of scheduled talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on the crisis, which is in its third week.

Meeting executives of E. ON Ruhrgas of Germany, ENI of Italy and Gaz de France, Putin proposed a consortium pay for "technical" gas, which is removed from the pipeline to power the giant pumps that keep the remainder of the gas moving westwards.

Islamabad  - British Foreign Secretary David Miliband on Friday pressed Pakistan for rapid action against those behind the November 2008 Mumbai terrorist attacks.

"Action needs to go further and faster to prosecute those who are arrested by the government in connection with Mumbai attacks," he told reporters in Islamabad after his meetings with the Pakistani leadership.