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Schwarzenegger outlines plan for first 100 days in office 
With the California recall election less than a week away, leading Republican actor-turned candidate Arnold Schwarzenegger said on Wednesday he was ready to take the governor's office and outlined plans for his first 100 days in office. 

"We are ready to take office," he told a crowd of about 400 cheering supporters in the Californian state capital of Sacramento."We are ready to take action. We are ready to return California to the people." 

"I'm not here to talk about campaigning, I'm here to talk about governing," Schwarzenegger said. 

Outlining plan for his first 100 days in office, Schwarzenegger put up a "10-point program," including repealing the tripling of the state car tax, moving to have the state budget audited and holding a special session of the Legislature to deal with spending cuts. 

He also vowed to reverse the bill signed by incumbent Democrat Governor Gray Davis last week that allows illegal immigrants to apply for driver's licenses, saying the bill would only weaken law enforcement and harm national security. 

He said he also intends to renegotiate state employee union contracts and would get Californians what he called a "fair share"of Indian gaming revenues. 

Schwarzenegger made the speech right after the Los Angeles Times released a new poll showing he had widened his lead among 135 candidates to replace Davis, the target of the recall vote scheduled for Oct. 7. 

The Hollywood star enjoyed support from 40 percent of likely voters, against 32 percent for Democrat Lieutenant Governor Cruz Bustamante, and 15 percent for another Republican candidate and state Senator Tom McClintock. 

The poll also showed increasing support for recalling Davis, with 56 percent supporting the recall, against 42 percent who oppose it. 

Schwarzenegger's surge came after the Sept. 24 debate and the withdrawal of former baseball commissioner Peter Ueberroth, another moderate Republican. 

But Davis' camp downplayed the results, saying the campaign remains uncertain. Davis on Wednesday released a radio ad featuring former President Bill Clinton criticizing the recall and saying that beating it is "the right thing to do." 

In another desperate effort to keep his office, Davis invited popular Democrat presidential candidate Wesley Clark to visit Los Angeles Wednesday to support his campaign. 

On Wednesday, the governor again characterized the recall as a "power grab" by the right and urged Democrats -- 27 percent of whom said they support the recall -- to unite in order to defeat it. 

EC warns of possible fines on France 
A top-level European Commission (EC) official warned Tuesday that the commission would not shy away from imposing fines on France if it continues to break euro-rules. 

"I am not in favor ... of applying sanctions against France. However, if the day comes and we have to apply sanctions, then we have to apply them," EC Economics Commissioner Pedro Solbes told a session of the European Parliament. 

These sanctions could potentially run into billions of euro but many analysts believe that the EC, the executive arm of the European Union (EU), would never actually impose them. 

France is set to break the EU's Stability and Growth Pact for the third consecutive year, something which at least in theory should trigger fines. 

This pact requires member states to keep their budget deficits to below three percent of their GDP (gross domestic product). France has failed to do this for the past two years and has admitted that it will take until 2005 to achieve this goal.

Developing nations may seek bilateral FTAs with rich nations 
Developing countries may seek individual bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) with rich nations after the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks failed to reach an agreement in Cancun, Mexico, a Philippine official said Friday. 

Members of the G21 bloc developing countries would, however, continue their fight to force rich countries led by the United States and the European Union to open up their farm sectors and end domestic subsidies, Philippine Trade Secretary Manuel Roxas told reporters. 

While there is cooperation, it does not preclude the G21 (members) from undertaking individual or regional arrangements on their own, Roxas said. 

There is no country that will uphold the primacy of G21 interests over their own national interests, Roxas said, "We are hard-nosed practitioners of negotiation and the international statecraft that says each country will pursue their own national interests the best way they can," he said. 

G21 members "will continue to push for the agenda that we espoused, which is a substantial reduction leading to the phaseout of subsidies, discipline imposed on domestic support and substantial market access provided to developing nations." 

Roxas noted that within the WTO there are already various alliances pushing for other issues such as those dealing with competition and investment policies and tariff reductions. 

"Bilateral or regional FTAs are always a part of a country's armory ... for economic development," he said, noting that ASEAN (the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), for example asa regional bloc, is negotiating free trade deals with economic powerhouses China and Japan. 

The Philippines, however, was not in a hurry to secure a bilateral free trade deal with the United States, which last year offered Southeast Asian countries opportunities to sign FTAs provided they are committed to economic reforms and openness. 

The United States is the largest investor in Southeast Asia and the biggest export market for the region. 

Only one member of ASEAN or the Association of Southeast Asian Nations -- Singapore -- has an FTA with the United States. Other ASEAN members are Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. 

Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia are also members of theG21 bloc, a newly formed alliance of 21 developing countries.