Vienna/Paris  - Air France-KLM has dropped its bid for Austrian Airlines AG, a spokesman said in Paris on Tuesday.

With the French-Dutch airline out of the race for buying the 42.75-per-cent stake of the Austrian flag carrier currently owned by the state, German Deutsche Lufthansa AG and Russian carrier S7 are likely the only other contenders.

However, Air France-KLM had informed Austrian Airlines that it was interested in continuing talks, the spokesman said.

Earlier, Air France-KLM had complained about the high price and a lack of transparency regarding the Austrian company's books.

Aosta,

Oslo  - US actress Scarlett Johansson was Tuesday named as one of the hosts of the upcoming Nobel Peace Prize Concert, organizers said.

Among acts slated to perform at the December 11 concert were Diana Ross along with Canadian singer-songwriter Leslie Feist, US country musician Dierks Bentley, singer Julieta Venegas, Nigerian musician Seun Kuti and Norwegian singer-songwriter Marit Larsen.

The concert is held the day after the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony where the 2008 winner, former Finnish president Martti Ahtisaari was to be honoured.

Helsinki - Top military leaders from the United States and Russia met Tuesday near Helsinki for their first time since this summer's war between Russia and Georgia.

The agenda was reported to have included talks on the situation in Georgia, an ally of the United States that in August fought a short war with Russia.

The meeting was attended by the chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, Admiral Michael Mullen, and General Nikolai Makarov, head of Russia's general staff.

Details of the discussions were not released, but it was reported to be the first direct meeting between these two defence chiefs.

Riga - The three Baltic stock exc