The 'troika' of international creditors called time out Friday on lengthy bailout negotiations with the Greek government, pending further consultations.

"The discussions since the beginning of September have been very intense," Simon O'Connor, spokesman for EU Economic Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn told a regular news conference, saying negotiators were "leaving this weekend" and "returning in about a week.

Italy slashed its economic growth forecasts on Thursday saying it was now expecting contractions of 2.4 percent for 2012 and 0.2 percent for 2013 due to "a deterioration in the international environment."

The government had previously forecast a shrinkage of 1.2 percent in 2012 and an expansion of 0.5 percent in 2013 in a report released in April.

Spain needs less money for recapitalizing its banks than widely believed, International Monetary Fund managing director Christine Lagarde said in an interview with the Wall Street Journal published Thursday.

"The number is lower than what was feared initially by the European and by the Spaniards," Lagarde told the Journal.

The World Bank said Thursday that it could reconsider its decision to cancel a $1.2 billion loan to Bangladesh for a major road and rail bridge, but only if authorities keep pledges to fight corruption.

In late June, the Washington-based lender cancelled its planned financing for the $3 billion Padma bridge project, saying the government in Dhaka had not cooperated in investigating "high-level" corruption in the project.

The religious owner of a right-wing publisher on Thursday finalized the purchase of one of Israel's leading newspapers, Maariv, despite opposition from much of the daily's staff.

A spokesman for Shlomo Ben-Zvi, who publishes and serves as editor-in-chief of the conservative Makor Rishon newspaper, confirmed the deal.

Oil-rich Saudi Arabia has distributed $3.7 billion in aid to countries touched by the Arab Spring, most of it to Egypt and Jordan, a report by the International Monetary Fund showed Wednesday.

Saudi Arabia, the Arab world's wealthiest country, has pledged nearly $17.9 billion in support for fellow Arabs since the pro-democracy revolt erupted in Tunisia in January 2010 and spread throughout the region, toppling and shaking authoritarian governments.

French carmaker PSA Peugeot Citroen said on Thursday it was in negotiations to sell 75 percent of its logistics subsidiary Gefco to Russian railway firm RZD for 800 million euros ($1.04 billion)

While RZD would effectively get control of Gefco under the deal, the head office of the logistics group is expected to remain in France and the company is expected to retain its current management team, including Luc Nadal as president, Peugeot said.

Bank of America plans to cut 16,000 jobs as part of a major restructuring plan by the end of 2012, when it would no longer be the largest U.S. banking employer, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

The cuts will take the banking giant's total employment to 260,000, the Journal said, the lowest level since 2008, when the bank acquired failing mortgage lender Countrywide Financial and the Merrill Lynch investment bank.

Global giants the European Union and China meet at a Brussels summit on Thursday under pressure to bolster slowing economic growth and tackle tough international dilemmas.

With a new leadership to be named in Beijing within months, recession and mounting protectionist trade disputes form the backdrop to the summit, alongside diplomatic differences over Syria.

International credit agency Standard & Poor's on Wednesday affirmed mining-driven Australia's AAA rating with a stable outlook, but warned about its growing reliance on the Chinese economy.

Australia is one of only a handful of nations to hold the top rating, with its economy growing a solid 0.6 percent in the three months to June and 3.7 percent from a year earlier.