Brussels  - Europe's carmakers Monday asked governments to provide them with a 40-billion-euro (54-billion-dollar) loan and to approve an incentives scheme for the scrapping of old vehicles to help them develop more environmentally-friendly vehicles at a time of financial and economic crisis.

"Car makers face increasingly hesitant consumers and call on governments to respond, stimulate the economy, relieve the credit crunch and restore consumer confidence," said Christian Streiff, head of the automobile industry's trade association, ACEA.

"Only then will consumers have the means and the confidence to invest in new vehicles," said Streiff, who is also the CEO of PSA Peugeot Citroen.

Luxembourg  - The euro area's finance ministers were meeting in Luxembourg on Monday amid plummeting stock market indexes and charges that governments were not coordinating their efforts to protect citizens' savings from the credit crunch.

About a third of the 15 European Union countries that share the common currency have already moved to safeguard bank deposits in some way or other - among them Germany, Austria, Greece, Ireland and Belgium.

But unilateral initiatives taken by some governments have irked neighbouring countries because of concerns that savers might move their money to where they think it will be safer.

Berlin  - The European Central Bank (ECB) has agreed to relax quality rules for securities to expedite the rescue of German lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), according to German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck Monday.

He spoke just hours after Germany unveiled an emergency loan package of 50 billion euros for HRE, 35 billion of which is backstopped by a joint government and banking industry guarantee.

His remarks in Berlin were the first indication of how the rest of the credit is to be secured.

London - Europe's carmakers are to ask the European Commission to lend the industry up to 40 billion euros (55.4 billion dollars) to help them develop more environmentally friendly vehicles, the Financial Times reported on Saturday.

The move comes days after the US Congress approved a 25-billion- dollar programme to help major US carmakers to produce green engines and vehicles.

Berlin  - Economists appealed Thursday for European Union governments to mount a joint bail-out of troubled banks rather than each nation acting for itself when banks stumble.

"Last week's US experience showed that saving one bank at a time won't work. A systemic response is needed and in Europe that means an EU-led initiative to recapitalize the banking sector," they said.

The call to action was issued in Berlin by the DIW German Institute of Economic Research.

The 10 signatories included DIW chief Klaus Zimmermann and economists from the Italy, the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, the London School of Economics and Harvard University.

Riga - Estonia's economy continues to stagnate after a decade of spectacular growth, according to official figures released Thursday.

In August 2008, industrial production decreased by 3 per cent year-on-year Statistics Estonia said.

Manufacturing production fell by 2 per cent owing to dwindling orders in domestic and external markets driven by a sharp drop in consumer demand as the effects of the global "credit crunch" make themselves felt.

One of the most telling figures was a 20 per cent reduction in beer production, while Statistics Estonia also noted that wood manufacturing, which is an important industry and major employer in Estonia "is endangered by a serious shortage of materials."