Tehran - It was not the best of years for Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

As 2008 drew to a close, the president had yet to realize his promised reforms, and Iran once again faced growing inflation at home and increasing isolation abroad.

The country's economic problems, with inflation soaring beyond 30 per cent, served to increase the number of Ahmadinejad's critics, even among the conservatives who once supported the president.

Widespread criticism led to the formation of a "neo-conservative" faction which won parliamentary elections and appointed Ali Larijani as its leader and speaker of the legislature.

Berlin - Coordination on Middle East peace moves with the European Union and other states is vital, Egyptian Foreign Minister Ahmed Abul Gheit said Tuesday on a visit to Berlin.

Cairo was still trying to persuade both Israel and Hamas authorities in Gaza to agree to a new truce when the existing one expires this Thursday. Some Palestinian militants oppose extending the truce.

"The region is going through a very, very critical phase," he said after talks with German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier. That was why coordination with the West had to be "very close."

Ramallah  - An undercover Israeli army unit dressed in civilian clothes shot and killed a 20-year-old Palestinian man early Tuesday in a village near the northern West Bank city of Jenin, Palestini

Jerusalem  - Israel's supreme court authorized the government to go ahead with its planned release of 227 Palestinian militants from Israeli prisons Monday, Israel Radio reported.

Israeli victims of shooting attacks and suicide bombings by Palestinian militants, as well as a settlement leader, had filed separate petitions against the release, prompting the court to issue a temporary injunction against the move.

The injunction was lifted after the government submitted its reply to the petitions.

The Israel Prisons Service said the prisoners would be released around noon, with 209 to be transported to a checkpoint outside the West Bank city of Ramallah and the
18 others to the Erez crossing with the northern Gaza Strip.

Amman  - The Islamic finance industry, which refers to the banking activity conducted in accordance with the principles of Sharia (Islamic law), gained the limelight over the past two months during the global financial turmoil as one of the relatively safe havens for investments.

Executives of Islamic banks and financial institutions have been arguing from the very beginning of the crisis that their businesses were relatively immune to the repercussions of the world financial turmoil because Islamic financial products were different from those inherent in the conventional banking system.

Islamic equities also turned out to be the least affected in the meltdown that swept global as well as Arab stock markets.

Amman  - An estimated accumulated Arab surplus of 1 trillion petrodollars gained prominence over the past three months as one of the key factors to reckon with in handling the global financial upheaval that erupted in the United States in September and spread to the rest of the world economy later on.

Analysts in the Middle East also raised the possibility of the turmoil prompting governments of the oil-rich Arab countries to repatriate a major part of Arab funds mostly invested or deposited in Western countries, as the Arab world appeared to emerge a safer haven for such investments.