:00:04. > :00:14.encouragement and support during her time as Queen.
:00:14. > :00:16.
:00:16. > :00:22.Now with the Financial News, here it is World Business Report.
:00:22. > :00:27.The headlines: The battle to avoid default - Greece's prime minister
:00:27. > :00:36.will continue talks to Secure a much-needed bail-out.
:00:36. > :00:41.The cold spell across Europe is set to fuel a fight over gas supplies.
:00:41. > :00:51.China is prohibiting the airlines from paying the European Union's
:00:51. > :00:52.
:00:52. > :00:58.carbon emission tax. A weekend of frustrating talks over
:00:58. > :01:01.details of Greece's next bail-out. Mr Papademos will resume
:01:01. > :01:04.negotiations with other party leaders today to try and get their
:01:04. > :01:08.backing for a harsh austerity cuts that are being demanded in return
:01:08. > :01:13.for another loan. He also needs to secure an agreement with Brussels.
:01:13. > :01:19.Without it, Greece will go bankrupt in a month. Our business reporter
:01:19. > :01:26.has the latest. Five frantic hours of talks in
:01:26. > :01:31.Athens failed to create an agreement on budget cuts. There was
:01:31. > :01:36.progress on bank recapitalisation, but agrees's prime minister is
:01:36. > :01:45.struggling to convince coalition partners to go along with more wage
:01:45. > :01:53.cuts. Greece knows that if it fails to take the troika's medicine, the
:01:53. > :01:58.bail-out will stop. The outcome of talks with private bondholders are
:01:58. > :02:04.somewhat academic. Even if Greece can play these debts down with
:02:05. > :02:10.private sector involvement, there is still a need for public sector
:02:10. > :02:14.involvement, that is the ECB taking a big hit. The head economist here
:02:14. > :02:20.says that ministers will feel pretty constrained - one is that?
:02:20. > :02:24.The government of the European Union needs to justify to the
:02:24. > :02:29.taxpayers that they will use more money to bail out Greece again. To
:02:29. > :02:32.do that, they need to show the taxpayers that the Greek party is
:02:32. > :02:37.doing their homework. The problem is that the government in Greece is
:02:37. > :02:42.very weak. It is not elected. The economy of Greece is in a deep
:02:43. > :02:49.recession. Therefore, the Greek government is unlikely to meet the
:02:49. > :02:54.target of fiscal adjustment. agonising wait for a complete deal
:02:54. > :02:58.continues. EU and IMF leaders want guarantees that the measures will
:02:58. > :03:06.be implemented, though how Greece can back up its promises isn't
:03:06. > :03:12.clear. We will speak to our reporter in
:03:12. > :03:16.Athens again. The agonising wait continues and there is still a
:03:16. > :03:20.severe lack of clarity as to what is going on?
:03:20. > :03:23.That right, all we had yesterday after five hours of talks between
:03:23. > :03:32.the coalition partners was a statement from the Prime Minister
:03:32. > :03:36.that said an agreement had been reached that 1.5% of GDP should be
:03:36. > :03:39.cut from public spending this year. There was some agreement about the
:03:39. > :03:43.recapitalisation of banks and pension funds, but there was no
:03:43. > :03:47.agreement on the contentious issues that the EU and IMF are putting
:03:47. > :03:51.forward, that minimum wage should be reduced and that holiday bonuses
:03:51. > :03:59.should be cut. These issues, which would go down very badly among
:03:59. > :04:02.ordinary Greeks are things that the coalition partners are unwilling to
:04:02. > :04:10.throw their weight behind because they have elections here in April
:04:10. > :04:18.and are unwilling to shoot themselves in the fort before these.
:04:18. > :04:28.The IMF is saying that Greece needs to forgo short-term economic game
:04:28. > :04:30.to secure their future for the long run.... Cutting the minimum wage so
:04:30. > :04:35.severely is not as easily said as done?
:04:35. > :04:42.That is what they say. Even though the Greek minimum-wage is about 50%
:04:42. > :04:47.more than the Portuguese wage, a similar sized country, the cost of
:04:47. > :04:52.living here it is higher than that of Portugal. Greece cannot cut even
:04:52. > :04:55.more from the wage. One party as spoke yesterday said that, actually,
:04:55. > :05:00.people are earning less here because the tax exemption threshold
:05:00. > :05:06.has fallen since last year. Greeks already feel very squeezed by
:05:06. > :05:10.austerity. There is a fear that if these sort of measures were to be
:05:10. > :05:14.pushed through, that could inflame social unrest on the streets of
:05:14. > :05:19.Athens even more than we have seen in the last few months. No party
:05:19. > :05:28.wants to be seen to be supporting that just weeks before elections,
:05:28. > :05:31.if they happen, in April. One news wire says that the
:05:31. > :05:34.international creditors have imposed an 11am deadline today for
:05:34. > :05:37.agreement on this issue. We will keep you up-to-date when we get
:05:37. > :05:42.developments. As you have been hearing, Severe
:05:42. > :05:46.weather across Europe is taking its toll and energy companies are
:05:46. > :05:56.bracing themselves for a fight oversupplied. Temperatures of-met
:05:56. > :05:58.
:05:59. > :06:07.35 degrees in Russia -- minus 35 degrees, where most of the gas
:06:07. > :06:11.comes from, have seen drops in delivery... The country is
:06:11. > :06:15.preparing contingency plans just in case. We are speaking to a Russian
:06:15. > :06:19.contingency expert. Initially, when there was a drop of supply to
:06:19. > :06:23.Europe, Russia pointed the finger at the Ukraine, a little bit of a
:06:23. > :06:28.fight there. What is your perspective on that? This is
:06:28. > :06:32.nothing new. As we have seen in 2006 and 2009 when similar fight
:06:32. > :06:38.happened between the Ukraine and Russia, it was quite difficult to
:06:38. > :06:41.establish who was at fault. Is it Russia not supplying enough, or the
:06:41. > :06:49.Ukraine not transporting it? In this case it is again difficult to
:06:49. > :06:57.establish whether the Ukraine is siphoning off, as Russia is
:06:57. > :07:01.claiming, or is Russia diverting the gas supplies to its domestic
:07:01. > :07:05.market? We are hearing, of course, very harsh temperatures in Russia
:07:05. > :07:14.and the Ukraine. There have been about 100 deaths there over the
:07:14. > :07:22.weekend. With this escalate and impact supplies to Europe? Again, I
:07:22. > :07:25.think it depends on what is happening. If it is really Russia
:07:25. > :07:32.diverting gas supplies to its domestic market because of the
:07:32. > :07:36.harsh winter conditions, then this may impact on European gas supplies.
:07:36. > :07:41.The good news is that the European Union has seen these problems
:07:41. > :07:51.before and they are well prepared, as we have seen. They are saying
:07:51. > :07:56.that they have enough gas in their storage and hope that this spell of
:07:56. > :08:03.cold will always sooner rather than later. This seems to reoccur you
:08:03. > :08:11.are ear, the relationship between their trading partners must be
:08:11. > :08:15.getting fractured -- a year after year. They will say that they are
:08:15. > :08:23.meeting their contractual obligations, they will push for
:08:23. > :08:28.alternative export routs. It the Ukraine is right, it is really a
:08:28. > :08:34.great impact on the European Union, EU officials will start thinking
:08:34. > :08:44.more about diversifying their energy import routes, putting more
:08:44. > :08:54.stress on other methods. Thank you for your perspective.
:08:54. > :09:04.
:09:04. > :09:08.China has banned Airlines from playing a carbon tax. -- paying. It
:09:08. > :09:11.has said it will prohibit its airlines from paying this tax on
:09:12. > :09:21.carbon emissions. They join the Americans, the Russians and the
:09:22. > :09:30.
:09:30. > :09:39.Indians are -- who are aiming to avoid these charges. Beijing says
:09:39. > :09:43.it will employ unspecified measures to protect their companies....
:09:43. > :09:48.There is no indication that there will be any immediate impact on