UN to hold first conference on Internet technology for development
The first-ever United Nations conference on ways to use wireless Internet technology fordevelopment will be hold on Thursday at the world body's New York Headquarters. 

The conference, organized by the UN Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) Task Force and the Boston-based Wireless Internet Institute, will bring representatives of developing countries together with leaders from information technology enterprises and international institutions to explore broadband wireless potential for supporting development, a UN press release said Wednesday. 

The morning session will include a debate on wireless Internet deployment scenarios, presentations of case studies and panels on "Technology Primer and Roadmap" and "Regulatory Landscape and Trends," it said. 

In the afternoon, brainstorming workshops involving field practitioners, regulators, IT vendors and international development specialists will suggest policies to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet broadband connectivity. 

According to the press release, participants are expected to examine the development impact of wireless technology developments,as well as practical deployment issues, including spectrum policies, local regulations, and alternative business models to support both the deployment and operations of wireless infrastructure networks. 

US, EU urge Iran to keep promise not to produce nuclear weapons
US President George W. Bush and European Union (EU) leaders called on Iran on Wednesday to keep its promise not to produce nuclear weapons. 

Speaking in a White House news conference with EU leaders, Bush said the United States and the European Union agreed to press Iran to comply with the UN nuclear watchdog agency's demands. 

"Iran has pledged not to develop nuclear weapons and the entire international community must hold that regime to its commitments," Bush said. "Iran must comply, and if they don't, we'll deal with that when they don't." 

"The United States and the EU are working closely to meet the proliferation challenges posed by North Korea and Iran," he said. 

Representing the EU, Greek Prime Minister Costas Simitis, whose country holds the rotating EU presidency, and European Commission President Romano Prodi emphasized the vital importance of strong ties between Europe and the United States. 

Prodi said trans-Atlantic deliberations on Iran were "going on daily and deeply ... We have to be sure that it doesn't constitute a danger to future peace."

Argentine PM calls for "sustainable agreement" with IMF 
Argentina needs a sustainable agreement with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to "integrate itself with the world," Prime Minister Alberto Fernandez said on Wednesday. 

"We need a sustainable agreement (with the IMF) which we could comply with. That is what President Nestor Kirchner put forward before the IMF, and I believe they understood," Fernandez said. 

"For the first time in many years, Argentina is having a frank and direct dialogue with the most important international credit organization," he added. 

The cabinet chief made the remarks after the government's talkswith IMF Managing Director Horst Koehler during the latter's two-day visit to the Argentine capital which concluded on Tuesday. 

Koehler announced on Tuesday that his organization would negotiate with the Argentine government on a new three-year agreement to support its future economic program. 

Fernandez said Argentina is in "a difficult situation" for it is "now overdue for its payments( of the debts)" and thus a new agreement is needed. 

The country needs "private investment for development and the investment would hardly get returns should the present external situation fails to improve," he added. 

As the No. 3 economy in Latin America, Argentina is among the largest debtors in the world. It owes as much as 14 billion US dollars to the IMF and 31 billion dollars to multilateral creditors as a whole. 

News Analysis: Why US Fed cuts interest rate again? 
The US Federal Reserve (Fed) decided on Wednesday to cut the short-term interest rate by 0.25 percentage points, pushing the US federal funds rate down to its lowest level since 1958. 

It was the first reduction of US short-term interest rate this year and the 13th cut since the beginning of 2001. The cut showed that the Fed was not satisfied with the economic conditions in the past months and has felt an urgent need to take action now. 

When US economic recovery slowed down dramatically at the end of 2002 and at the beginning of this year, many analysts had said the slowdown was caused by the uncertainties arising from a possible US-led war against Iraq. They had predicted that economic recovery would speed up once the war began and the uncertainties dispersed. 

Although major combat operations in Iraq ended more than two months ago with a surprising quick victory for the United States, many uncertainties remain around the US economy. Economic recovery in many parts of the country was sluggish in the past two months, the latest survey by the Fed showed. 

The government data had drawn an unpleasant picture for the US economy. 

Industrial production in US factories, mines and utilities climbed by a small 0.1 percent in May after declining sharply in the previous two months, but it was still down by 0.8 percent compared with the same period in 2002. 

Retail sales in the United States grew by a small 0.1 percent in May following a 0.3 percent decline in the previous month. 

"Consumer spending remained lackluster overall. Retail sales rebounded as the hostilities in Iraq subsided, but sales remained below the level of a year ago," the Fed survey said earlier this month. 

The unemployment rate jumped to 6.1 percent in May, the highest level since July 1994 when the jobless rate was the same 6.1 percent. 

The budget deficit of the US government totaled 292.1 billion dollars in the first eight months of the 2003 fiscal year starting from October, 2002, twice the sum for the same period a year earlier. The deficit surpassed the 290 billion dollar record in the whole fiscal year of 1992. 

Economists attributed the slow economic recovery in the United States to not only the war in Iraq but also, more importantly, many economic structural problems in the country such as over-expansion at the end of last century and the breakup of stock bubbles a few years ago. 

US Fed officials have seen that the risks of not acting appear to outweigh the risks of setting off inflation by flooding the economy with money, the New York Times reported on Tuesday. 

Meanwhile, to be vigilant against the occurrence of deflation is another reason behind the Fed's interest rate cut. 

Since deflation appears harder to reverse than to prevent, as it happened in Japan, the US Fed was also willing to take an action of "insurance"-- a word Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan has used several times as he talked about deflation. But Greenspan stressed from time to time that deflation is non-existent in the United States. 

Undoubtedly, the latest cut of interest rate by the Fed will give some impetus to the US economy, which is already showing signs of acceleration recently, especially at a time when consumerprices are steady at low levels. 

However, how quickly will the US economy pick up in the next half of this year remains to be seen and it is unrealistic to be too optimistic as difficulties in the economy cannot be overcome in a short time.