Asian shares surged on Monday after weekend meetings of European leaders resulted in "good progress" on tackling a regional debt crisis that has threatened to plunge the world economy into recession.

The Eurozone wants to beef up its 440-billion-euro ($610 billion) rescue fund, the European Financial Stability Facility, to convince markets it has the means to protect highly indebted nations such as Italy and Greece.

Software company Oracle Corp. said Monday that it is buying RightNow Technologies Inc. for about $1.5 billion so it can offer a broader range of software and services that help businesses manage customer service.

Oracle is offering $43 per share for the tech service company from Bozeman, Mont.. That is a 19.6 percent premium over RightNow's closing price of $35.96 on Friday.

Hundreds of Kuwait Airways Corp. staff began an indefinite strike Monday to demand a pay increase for national workers, disrupting flights of the flag carrier, head of the trade union said.

"We have started an open strike from today. It will continue until the government meets our legitimate demands of raising our wages," Abdullah al-Hajeri told Agence France Presse.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Saturday cited "progress" in ongoing talks to contain the Eurozone debt crisis after a telephone conversation earlier with German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

"I spoke to the chancellor this afternoon, there is progress, we are going to work tonight," he told reporters on arriving in Brussels ahead of a European Union summit Sunday.

European ministers embarked Saturday on overhauling a rescue package for Greece, ahead of crunch French-German talks to resolve a row over a crisis that threatens to cause global recession.

Amid dire warnings that the debt crisis is endangering all of Europe, ministers said that banks had to take a greater share of the pain in a rescue package agreed in July but already seen as insufficient to solve Greek woes.

China on Saturday pledged "full fledged support" for next month's G20 leaders summit in France, as the deepening Eurozone crisis threatens to tip the global economy back into recession.

Vice Premier Wang Qishan, China's top official on financial affairs, made the comments during a meeting with French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe, who stopped over in the Chinese capital following a visit to India.

Asian markets were mixed in nervous trade Friday as European leaders put back a final plan to contain the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis.

A rift between France and Germany over how to boost the continent's rescue fund made it unlikely a summit on Sunday would end in a solid deal, leading the 17-nation bloc to announce a second meeting would be held Wednesday.

Austerity measures in Greece which have sparked violent protests are nevertheless the "best" way for the country to recover from its desperate debt crisis, Europe's central bank chief said Friday.

"The measures that are taken are the best way to put progressively the people of Greece in a better situation, both in terms of growth and in terms of jobs," Jean-Claude Trichet, the outgoing European Central Bank (ECB) president, said in Warsaw on Friday.

As grime-covered men emerge from deep shafts on the Philippines' "golden mountain", Norie Palma eagerly prepares to haggle for her share of ore from the weary miners.

The former laundrywoman turned gold buyer directs the procession to her small milling shack amid grunts from the miners whose backs are stooped under the weight of their hauls from the dangerous honeycomb tunnels of Mount Diwata.

The death of Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi eases the specter of a fully fledged insurgency that could disrupt oil production for years to come, energy analysts said Thursday.

Experts said news of Gadhafi's death would have little immediate impact on the price of oil, but removed a threat that had been hanging over future prices.