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BEIJING (Reuters) - Developed countries with big budget deficits must start now to prepare public opinion for the belt-tightening that will be needed starting next year, the No. 2 official at the IMF said on Sunday.

CANCUN, Mexico (Reuters) - Member countries of the Inter-American Development Bank could hand the regional lender a capital increase of $80 billion to replenish its coffers, Colombia's finance minister said on Saturday.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's trade balance could turn to a deficit in March, commerce minister Chen Deming said on Sunday, adding that adjustments to the yuan's value would not by itself resolve global trade imbalances.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Novell Inc spurned a $2 billion takeover offer from investment fund Elliott Associates on Saturday, calling the bid inadequate and saying it undervalued the business software maker.

CHICAGO (Reuters) - A former Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc executive warned months before the bank's collapse that senior management was potentially misleading investors and regulators about the value of the firm's assets, the Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday.

BERLIN (Reuters) - German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said only the most extreme circumstances could justify a bailout of a European Union state from within the union, and any such aid would have to be delivered bilaterally.

BERLIN (Reuters) - An insolvency mechanism should be set up for nations that are unable to manage their debts, Horst Koehler, Germany's president and a former head of the International Monetary Fund, said in an interview on Saturday.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The board of India's Bharti Airtel on Saturday approved a $9 billion offer for Kuwaiti telecom Zain's African assets, Bloomberg reported, citing two people with knowledge of the negotiations.

DUBAI (Reuters) - The trillion dollar Islamic finance industry is looking beyond the troubles of Dubai developer Nakheel at possible reforms that could help draw more interest from Western players.

Orlando, Florida (Reuters) - Regulators must be "significantly tougher" on large and complex financial firms to limit wider risks, but big firms are still needed to keep the global economy humming, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said on Saturday.

ATHENS (Reuters) - Greece has taken the necessary steps to tackle its fiscal crisis and will not default on its debt obligations, the country's prime minister said on Saturday in a speech to his socialist party's national council.

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's 2010 inflation goal of 3 percent is tough but achievable, with good grain supplies and excess capacity helping keep prices down, while growth should hit 8 or 9 percent, senior government advisers told a conference on Saturday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged lawmakers on Saturday to resist pressure to weaken a financial reform bill and called again for an independent consumer watchdog to help prevent future financial crises.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Canon Inc said its tender offer for shares in Oce NV has raised its stake in the Dutch printer maker to 84 percent, moving closer to its target of turning Oce into a wholly owned subsidiary.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The chairman of the Senate Banking Committee on Friday wrote to the Justice Department urging establishment of a task force to probe possible violations of the law at Lehman Brothers and other firms.

BRUSSELS/ATHENS (Reuters) - European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged EU member states on Friday to agree a standby aid package Greece after Athens said it could turn to the IMF for help.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Group Inc CEO Lloyd Blankfein and other top executives, pressured by public outrage to slash their bonuses, still received tens of millions of dollars in distributions from an internal investment fund in 2009.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Washington's bid to put finishing touches on healthcare reform this weekend should help lift uncertainty on Wall Street, but there may be some turbulence along the way next week as the recent rally appears to be fraying.

PHOENIX (Reuters) - The U.S. pay czar will slash the number of top General Motors Co executives who will receive base salaries of more than $500,000 this year.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Smartphones may be one of the hottest areas in technology with big names like Apple and Google tussling for share, but investors are questioning the growth prospects for mobile carriers as subscriber gains slow.