Citing falling international oil prices, Finance Minister Alí Rodríguez said that Venezuela’s 2009 budget “will have significant restrictions” compared with this year’s plan.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France called for an overhaul of the world’s financial system, arguing that an era of unregulated markets was over.

With the dollar?s modest comeback and oil?s retreat, policy makers in the region have been bolstered in their resolve to keep currency pegs in place.

Iraq?s lagging spending on its own reconstruction has been the subject of widespread criticism as oil prices, the country?s main source of revenue, have skyrocketed.

Soaring oil prices will leave the Iraqi government with a budget surplus of as much as $79 billion by year?s end, according to a new report.

The windfall, which covers surpluses from oil sales over three years, appears likely to put a new focus on the amount spent by the United States to rebuild Iraq since the American-led invasion.

The soaring price of oil will leave the Iraqi government with a budget surplus, an American analysis concluded.

The Ministry of Finance has allotted $196 million for the repair and reconstruction of schools damaged in the earthquake that struck southwest China in May.

Mexico produces less crude than it planned and imports more refined gas, lacking the capacity to refine its oil itself.

Opponents say the Citizens Power Councils, a system of neighborhood committees, are reminiscent of organs of other totalitarian governments, such as Cuba.