Poznan, Poland  - Waiting for Obama is a prime pastime at this year's UN climate conference.

Until Barack Obama takes the US president's oath of office on January 20, work on a global deal to combat climate change is largely on hold. But his election is cheering negotiators working toward an accord due by next December.

"I am delighted to see that ... Obama is planning ambitious energy and climate policies," Danish Prime Minister Anders Fogh Rasmussen said as the two-week talks opened Monday.

With 190 nations attending and the Bush administration representing the United States one last time, Obama was the missing link at the talks in Poland.

Brussels  - Germany is already doing its share and will not spend more money to help lift the European Union out of recession, the country's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, said Monday.

"Germany is putting 31 billion euros (39.5 billion dollars) on the table. That is 1.25 per cent of our gross domestic product. I am not sure everyone has properly registered this," Steinbrueck said in Brussels.

Steinbrueck and his fellow eurozone ministers were holding a first discussion on the European Commission's economic recovery plan, which will have to be approved by heads of state and government at a summit due to take place on December 11-12.

Bucharest  - Romania's centre-left Social Democrats (PSD) were leading the centre-right Democratic Liberals (PDL) of President Traian Basescu by less than a percentage point in the country's parliamentary elections Monday.

With 99.62 per cent of Sunday's ballots counted, figures released by the Central Electoral Commission gave the Social Democrats' 33.09 per cent in the lower house compared to Basescu's PDL 32.34 per cent.

In the Senate, the PSD collected 34.12 per cent, while the PDL garnered 33.57 per cent.

Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu's National Liberal Party languished in third place with 18.57 per cent in the lower house and 18.75 per cent in the Senate.

Rome  - Inter Milan president Massimo Moratti has played down the importance of his team's lead in the Serie A and quelled rumours of new arrivals when the transfer market opens in January.

Inter's website Monday quoted Moratti as saying that "this is a good moment and there have been problems for the other teams. It was great that Inter played a very good first half (as they beat Napoli 2-1)."

The Italian champions at the weekend beat the Naples guests and now hold a six-point lead over AC Milan, who lost 3-1 at Palermo and trail second-place Juventus on goal difference. Inter have 33 points from 14 games.

Washington  - A huge red AIDS ribbon hung Monday on the north portico of the White House Monday, symbolizing the US "resolve to confront" the dreaded scourge that has infected 33 million people worldwide, US President George W Bush said.

Bush emphasized the accomplishments of his nearly eight years in office in supporting the fight against AIDS, which even his critics acknowledge was one of the strongest overtures of his administration.

The ribbon, Bush said, affirmed "the matchless value of every life."

He claimed his emergency plan for AIDS relief, known as PEPFAR, was the "largest international health initiative dedicated to a single disease."

Harare/Johannesburg  - Rioting broke out in central Harare late Monday as mobs of uniformed but unarmed soldiers followed by hundreds of civilians went on the rampage, eyewitnesses said.

Several shots were fired as authorities deployed a large force of heavily armed troops and riot police, and one man was reported shot. It was not known whether the shooting was fatal.

Panic ensued as vehicles were stoned, shop windows smashed and looted as the mobs - some of them waving the open hand salute of the country's pro-democracy Movement for Democratic Change - whistled and danced through the city centre.

The force of anti-riot police was swiftly deployed and the mobs dispersed, leaving bricks and stones littering the road.