Washington  - Republican senator John McCain announced Wednesday that he will suspend his campaign and return to Washington to work on emergency legislation designed to stem off the country's financial crisis.

In a brief statement to reporters, McCain said he has asked his Democratic opponent, Barack Obama, to join him in the effort, and that he wanted to delay Friday's first presidential election debate between the two candidates.

Washington  - US President George W Bush congratulated Iraqi lawmakers for reaching an agreement Wednesday on an election law that will allow voters to chose new local governments in most provinces by the end of January.

"Today's action demonstrates the ability of Iraq's leaders to work together for the good of the Iraqi people and represents further progress on political reconciliation," Bush said in a statement.

Washington  - Amidst growing resistance in Congress to a proposed urgent, mammoth bailout plan for Wall Street, US President George W Bush was to speak later Wednesday on the economy, the White House said.

The speech at 9 pm (0100 GMT Thursday) comes after repeated calls from Congress and the public for a more complete explanation of why the White House is so anxious to push through an emergency 700- billion-dollar plan by week's end.

New York  - Israeli President Shimon Peres on Wednesday invited Arab leaders for a peace summit in Jerusalem and said he expected a comprehensive peace deal with the Palestinians to be in place by next year.

Peres said the initial goal of reaching a peace agreement this year on the creation of a Palestinian state was unlikely, "but I believe it can be accomplished within the next year."

Vienna  - The European Union and the United States said Wednesday they were ready to start comprehensive talks with Iran on its nuclear programme, but also indicated their support for new measures should Tehran continue to defy the UN Security Council.

Many International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) members are concerned about Iran's refusal to answer lingering questions over past research that could have been related to the development of nuclear weapons.