EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The European Commission has amended its values for the amount of greenhouse gas emissions biofuels release so that certain fuels produced in Europe that previously would not have met new "green" thresholds approved by MEPs now meet them.

The change, based on new data from the commission's researchers, car manufacturers and oil companies, is a convenient move for the European biofuels industry. Diplomats from EU member states are meeting today (29 October) to decide on a working document - seen by EUobserver - on the renewable energy directive that features the new figures and that the EU presidency will use as the basis for compromise negotiations on the legislation with the European Parliament.

Sugar cane good; sugar beet also now good

When proposing the bill, the commission had initially suggested that in order to be included as part of a target that 10 percent of road fuels come from renewable sources, biofuels had to achieve a 35 percent savings in greenhouse gas emissions on what traditional fossil fuels would have emitted.

This standard was low enough that a range of biofuels produced in Europe could meet it. However, the industry committee of the parliament in September more strictly demanded that biofuels achieve a 45 percent savings on fossil fuels immediately, and a 60 percent savings by 2015.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The upcoming Czech EU presidency is considering inviting autocratic Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko to an extraordinary EU summit in the first half of 2009, if the country introduces pro-democratic reforms.

"It is possible that during the Czech presidency a summit with the eastern partners of the EU will be held - that means with Ukraine, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia. But we are not sure yet if Belarus will participate in it," Czech foreign ministry spokeswoman Zuzana Opletalova told EUobserver.

A Belarus street protestor - geopolitics is higher up than democracy on the EU agenda for now

"We would like to see Belarus there but there are some conditions - Belarus has to become a member of the European Eastern Partnership first and of course there has to be some improvement on its way to democracy."

The Eastern Partnership is a joint Polish-Swedish plan to accelerate EU integration with its post-Soviet neighbours, floated before the Russia-Georgia conflict earlier this year.

The Czech summit idea would be the first major step in the process, with the European Commission currently working on lower-level details, such as visa facilitation and free-trade deals for the six countries in question.

The BBC, the UK public broadcaster, has found evidence in South Ossetia that appears to indict Georgian troops of having targeted civilians during their August attack on Tskhinvali, a claim strongly denied by Tbilisi. Meanwhile, Russian officials have told the EU that unless it recognises the two breakaway regions, it is to keep its monitors out.

Russian troops are set to stay for a long time in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, with no perspective so far for the EU monitors to be let in.

After a visit to Tskhinvali - the capital of South Ossetia - the BBC reported on Tuesday (28 October) evidence including a heavily bombed apartment building that suggests Georgia used indiscriminate force and may have targeted civilians - an action that qualifies as a war crime under international law.

Taya Sitnik, a college lecturer, told the BBC her 21-year-old son bled to death in her arms on the morning of 9 August after a fragment from a Georgian tank shell hit him in the throat as they were both sheltering from artillery fire in the basement of her block of flats.

Mrs Sitnik said she subsequently saw the tank positioned a few metres from the building, firing shells into every floor. Extensive damage to the five-story block appeared consistent with her version of events, the BBC reports.

In a decision criticized by Austria's Jewish community and other organizations, far-right politician Martin Graf was voted into one of the top posts in Austria's parliament on Tuesday, Oct. 28.

Although Graf is a member of a right-wing nationalist student union that has contacts with neo-Nazis and Holocaust deniers, 70 percent of the legislators supported him to become one of the two deputy presidents of parliament. Graf was backed by 109 out of 156 votes.

As the third strongest faction after overtaking the Greens in the Sept. 28 parliamentary election, Graf's Freedom Party had the traditional right to nominate one of their representatives for the post. His candidature was strongly opposed by the Green party.

Graf was voted deputy president of parliament with the support of Austria's two far-right parties, the Freedom Party and the Alliance for the Future of Austria, as well as the mainstream conservative People's Party.

The economic downturn will pass, but security concerns will stay, the general said

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The global economic downturn and a potential Democratic win in US elections should not delay plans to build parts of a missile shield in Europe, the head of the US Missile Defence Agency, general Henry Obering, has said.

"If you don't have national security it won't matter what your economy is doing because you won't be able to protect your citizens and their jobs," he said in an interview with EUobserver on Tuesday

Speaking hours before a trip to Poland and the Czech Republic - where the US missile shield components are to be placed - the general described the project as "a prudent investment in security," which remains necessary to counter the continuing proliferation of a ballistic missile threat around the world.

To support the case, he compared the $83 billion (€66 billion) damage of the 11 September 2001 attack on New York alone to the approximately $120 billion spent on the missile defence programme since it was created in 1983.

School pupils, university students and teachers have staged demonstrations across Italy against a school reform law just passed by parliament.

In Rome's Piazza Navona, a popular tourist spot, several people were lightly injured in a clash between left- and right-wing students.

The reform package is expected to cut the education budget.

In primary schools there will be just one all-purpose teacher per class and a grade system for pupils' behaviour.

Croatia's new justice minister has announced a package of measures to tackle organised crime, following a spate of mafia-style killings.

Ivan Simonovic told the Croatian parliament that courts would fast-track such cases and witness protection would be improved.

He said the problem needed "a scalpel", because it threatened people's security and Croatia's bid to join the EU.

New legislation would allow criminals' property to be confiscated, he said.

"That way we will hit the mob where it hurts most - their wallets!" he said.

It is a motley collection of items - pewter jugs, a box of cigars, an engraving of the Belgian parliament - but it gives a glimpse of the largesse that is bestowed upon European commissioners as they travel the world in luxury.

The 27 members of the EU's executive body have registered 216 gifts during their four-year term, in line with a code of conduct that requires them to disclose details of presents worth more than €150 (£120) but not of any hospitality or other perks such as private jets, holidays, hotels and restaurants, no matter who paid for them.

Pledges made in 2005 to tighten the code, after an outcry over a cruise on a Greek tycoon's yacht enjoyed by José Manuel Barroso, the Commission President, seem to have fallen by the wayside.

Instead, transparency in Brussels amounts to a quaint list of curios, such as the 12-volume history of Sicily received by the Italian former commissioner Franco Frattini in December 2004, his only entry on the register.

KIEV, Ukraine: Ukraine's Parliament put aside weeks of political infighting on Wednesday to pass legislation aimed at securing an emergency loan from the International Monetary Fund as the country feels the effects of the global financial crisis.

The party of the prime minister, Yulia Tymoshenko, had put forward its own legislation. But it said it was burying its differences with the president, Viktor Yushchenko, and would vote for his proposals in order to secure the funds, which are needed to prop up the country's ailing markets and relieve pressure on the public finances.

"Now we have put our political ambitions off to the side," said Nataliya Korolevskaya, a member of Tymoshenko's party. "The health of the economy is now more important."

Together, the two parties have 227 votes, enough to secure the passage of the legislation in the 450 seat Parliament.

The risk to the UK from falling oil production in coming years is greater than the threat posed by terrorism, according to an industry taskforce report published today.

The report, from the Peak Oil group, warns that the problem of declining availability of oil will hit the UK earlier than generally expected - possibly within the next five years and as early as 2011.

Oil supply could then rapidly decline, or even collapse, the report warns, with potentially devastating implications for the UK economy.

The report was issued today by the recently established UK industry taskforce on peak oil and energy security, a group of eight companies including transport firms Virgin, Stagecoach and FirstGroup, engineers Arup, architects Foster and Partners, and energy giant Scottish and Southern.

Entitled The Oil Crunch, the report argues that the risk of an early peak in oil production poses a bigger threat to UK society than tightening gas supplies, terrorism or the short-term impacts of climate change.

It's again because of the Left Party. Saarland was the base of Oskar Lafontaine, SPD leader turned Left Party co-leader. So a large part of the SPD party structure defected to the Left Party, resulting in a party not just hoping to pass the 5% limit, but be a major party like in East Germany.

The latest poll is (with changes vs. a poll last month by the same pollster in parantheses):

CDU: 38% (-4)
SPD: 25% (+3)
Left Party: 23% (+3)
FDP (liberals): 6% (+-0)
Greens: 5% (-1)

1. If you consider just the three big parties, it is a giantr boondoggle. Here the SPD-Left Party animosity is personal at the level of the respective leaders. The SPD leader would also have a hard time selling a Grand Coalition.

2. The two small parties fell back to the 5% limit. It now looks that even if both make it above, even together they will fail to be in a position of balance.

EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Hungary is to receive a record sum of €20 billion in a rescue package agreed by the European Union, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank and designed to help Budapest cope with the devastating damage to national finances and the forint caused by the global credit crunch.

Hungary is to receive international aid to prevent an economic meltdown

The financial aid is due to be delivered through three channels: the EU will provide a loan of €6.5 billion under a "medium-term assistance facility" that is allowed for member states under the bloc's rules; the IMF will provide assistance of €12.5 billion and the World Bank aid is worth €1 billion.

The rescue plan comes attached with specific conditions on how Hungary should repair its public spending this and next year and also reform its fiscal governance. The move comes after the Hungarian central bank raised interest rates to 11.5 percent in a bid to strengthen the country's currency.

"The financial assistance package will be provided in the context of a strong commitment by the Hungarian authorities to implement a [parallel] policy programme," the French EU presidency and the European Commission said in a statement, published on the early hours of Wednesday (29 October).

Euro zone members have watched their currency fall sharply against the dollar in recent days, as forex markets react to the complex global financial crisis. But observers disagree on the possible effects of the decline.

Analysts took conflicting lessons from the euro's fall to two-and-a-half-year lows, with some saying the fall is a short-term problem that could help boost exports, while others saw it as a sign of serious policy discord in the 15-nation euro zone.

In European trading on Tuesday, Oct. 28, the euro touched a low of $1.23 -- the last time it was so weak was in April, 2006 -- before reaching $1.25 in Asian trading. The currency fell even farther against the yen; in all it weakened against 14 of the 16 most active currencies.

Analysts attributed the drop to a number of factors, including the widespread perception that Europe's economy is on the brink of a recession and the expectation that European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet may soon lower interest rates.

VW's share price almost halved on Wednesday after Porsche released its stranglehold on the stock and announced it was increasing the supply of tradable VW shares. The German index DAX remained steady thanks to steep gains in world markets.

Shares in Volkswagen nearly halved on Wednesday after its main shareholder, sports car maker Porsche, said it would increase the supply of VW shares, reversing a surge caused by speculators who had pushed VW's market value as high as €278 billion ($348 billion) and briefly made it the world's most valuable company.

DPA

A Frankfurt trader watching the German stock market's rollercoaster ride this week. Porsche's announcement on Sunday that it had indirect control of 74.1 percent of VW -- a direct stake of 42.6 percent plus options on a further 31 percent -- caused panicked buying of the few remaining available VW shares by so-called short-sellers, speculators who had wrongly bet on a decline in the stock.

Volkswagen shares had doubled on Monday and doubled again on Tuesday, rising above €1,000 at one point and briefly replacing US oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp as the company with the highest market capitalization in the world.

French president Nicolas Sarkozy has called for an EU crisis fund for member states to be extended from €12 billion currently to "at least" €20 billion.

Mr Sarkozy - whose country currently holds the rotating EU presidency - will make the proposal to his EU counterparts when they meet in Brussels next Friday (7 November).

Mr Sarkozy wants the EU to have a fund of "at least €20 billion" to be able to better respond to crises.

Currently, an EU "community mechanism" allows member states to receive medium-term loans from a common pot of €12 billion.

"I will propose on 7 November ...that the EU itself, which has at its disposal €12 billion to support a certain number of member states, passes to at least €20 billion in order to increase our ability to respond to the [financial] crisis," the French president said on Tuesday (28 October) shortly before a meeting with UK prime minister Gordon Brown in Versailles, France.

Both men called for an increase in funding for the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as well.

The CEO of Deutsche Bank Josef Ackermann is justifiably proud of the fact that his bank has so far been able to weather the financial crisis better than many of its competitors. But he still hasn't won any sympathy points. Perhaps his self-image is to blame.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel had invited an illustrious group of guests to the Chancellery to honor a man from the business world whom she especially admires: Josef Ackermann, the CEO of Deutsche Bank.

Today, it would be more accurate to use the past tense -- to say that Ackermann was a man she once admired.

Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann is Germany's favorite bogeyman. Some of that is his own fault, but not all. At the time, in February of this year, the chancellor's relationship with her favorite banker was still in good shape. The dinner in Berlin was Merkel's way of thanking Ackermann for having invited her to his 60th birthday celebration, which she was unable to attend due to scheduling conflicts.

Nowadays, the news is that Merkel was apparently irritated over the awarding of the North Rhine-Westphalia Future Prize to Ackermann. Deutsche Bank, in the mean time, has announced that its CEO will not accept the prize.

A.I.G. Has Used Billions From the Fed but Hasn't Said for What

By MARY WILLIAMS WALSH
Published: October 29, 2008

The American International Group is rapidly running through $123 billion in emergency lending provided by the Federal Reserve, raising questions about how a company claiming to be solvent in September could have developed such a big hole by October. Some analysts say at least part of the shortfall must have been there all along, hidden by irregular accounting.

"You don't just suddenly lose $120 billion overnight," said Donn Vickrey of Gradient Analytics, an independent securities research firm in Scottsdale, Ariz.  Mr. Vickrey says he believes A.I.G. must have already accumulated tens of billions of dollars worth of losses by mid-September, when it came close to collapse and received an $85 billion emergency line of credit by the Fed...later supplemented by a $38 billion lending facility.

Tantalizing support for this argument comes from what appears to have been a behind-the-scenes clash at the company over how to value some of its derivatives contracts. An accountant brought in by the company because of an earlier scandal was pushed to the sidelines on this issue, and the company's outside auditor, PricewaterhouseCoopers, warned of a material weakness months before the government bailout.

The internal auditor resigned and is now in seclusion, according to a former colleague. His account, from a prepared text, was read by Representative Henry A. Waxman, Democrat of California and chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, in a hearing this month.

"When investors don't have full and honest information, they tend to sell everything, both the good and bad assets," said Janet Tavakoli, president of Tavakoli Structured Finance, a consulting firm in Chicago. "It's really bad for the markets. Things don't heal until you take care of that."

A.I.G. has declined to provide a detailed account of how it has used the Fed's money. The company said it could not provide more information ahead of its quarterly report, expected next week, the first under new management. The Fed releases a weekly figure, most recently showing that $90 billion of the $123 billion available has been drawn down.

A.I.G. has outlined only broad categories: some is being used to shore up its securities-lending program, some to make good on its guaranteed investment contracts, some to pay for day-to-day operations and -- of perhaps greatest interest to watchdogs -- tens of billions of dollars to post collateral with other financial institutions, as required by A.I.G.'s many derivatives contracts.

No information has been supplied yet about who these counterparties are, how much collateral they have received or what additional tripwires may require even more collateral if the housing market continues to slide.

Ms. Tavakoli said she thought that instead of pouring in more and more money, the Fed should bring A.I.G. together with all its derivatives counterparties and put a moratorium on the collateral calls. "We did that with ACA," she said, referring to ACA Capital Holdings, a bond insurance company that filed for bankruptcy in 2007.

The current financial crisis may be more far-reaching than even the 1929 crash, a Bank of England policymaker has warned.

Professor David Blanchflower is a member of the Bank's Monetary Policy Committee (MPC), and has often been a lone voice in urging rate cuts.

Now he has said big interest rate cuts are needed to avoid a deep recession.

The last vote was 9-0 in favour of a cut. Blanchflower is seen a rather unserious extremist, so we won't be seeing Fed level cuts in the UK - but the prudent people might agree to another 1% or so, especially with oil down and food starting to drift down.

Not that interest rates are particularly relevant anyway, in the bigger picture.

Traders in Tokyo have given warning that about $90 billion (£55billion) of complex foreign exchange products, sold mainly to Japanese households and institutions, are on the brink of falling "like a house of cards".

MOSCOW: As chances of rolling over loans with troubled Western banks dwindle in the financial crisis, Russian oil companies are negotiating multibillion dollar lines of credit from a more reliable source: the cash-rich Chinese government.

Prime Minister Wen Jiabao of China was in Moscow on Tuesday for talks with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, about a potential loan-for-oil deal that would be backed by future exports to China, Russian officials said.

If signed, the deal would mark a significant commitment from Russian companies to redirect some of their energy exports to Asia at a time when Russia's relations with the West are strained.

Few details of the proposed deal have been made public. The Russian deputy prime minister for energy, Igor Sechin, said after the talks Tuesday that "considerable" sums of money were being negotiated.

Backed by their parents' capital, Iberdrola Renovables, from Spain, and EDP Renovaveis, from Portugal, are poised to exploit the downturn and snap up smaller rivals.

Spanish and Portuguse firms are positioning themselves to dominate the US wind energy market. In the wheat fields of Washington State's Klickitat County, the blades of 133 wind turbines spin rhythmically in the breeze. Built in 2006 near the town of Bickleton, the installation -- known as the Big Horn Wind Project -- produces enough electricity to power 60,000 homes and is one of hundreds of renewable energy projects that have sprung up across the US in recent years.

Yet Big Horn also embodies another trend in America's alternative energy sector. Along with 24 other wind farms around the country, it is owned by Spain's Iberdrola Renovables, a majority-controlled spin-off of European utility Iberdrola. Already the world's largest wind farm operator, Iberdrola Renovables now is the second-biggest wind-energy company in the US, behind only Florida Power & Light. Another European firm, Portugal's EDP Renovaveis -- a subsidiary of domestic utility Energias de Portugal -- is the third-largest, making these two Iberian companies among the leading players in America's push into alternative energy.

Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who had ruled for 30 years, was defeated by Mohamed Nasheed, a former "prisoner of conscience", in the country's first democratic election.

Mr Nasheed, the leader of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) who is known on the islands as "Anni", won 54 per cent of the vote in a two-horse presidential race with Mr Gayoom.

Mr Nasheed becomes the third president since the island nation in the Indian Ocean was granted independence from Britain in 1965. Over 209,000 Maldivians were registered to vote in the contest and turnout was extremely high at 86 per cent.

There was jubilation in the capital, Male, at the result, not least among Mr Nasheed's supporters. "It is a very happy result - it speaks for itself," said the MDP vice president, Ibrahim Hussein Zaki. "We are very happy that President Gayoom peacefully conceded defeat - he called Nasheed last night".

Unless the United States modernizes its inventory of nuclear weapons and develops a replacement warhead, the atomic arsenal's long-term safety and reliability will deteriorate, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates warned Tuesday.

Gates also broke with the Bush administration by saying the United States "probably should" ratify the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty, an international agreement prohibiting new testing of nuclear weapons...

"No one has designed a new nuclear weapon in the United States since the 1980s, and no one has built a new one since the early 1990s," he said...

"To be blunt," Gates said, "there is absolutely no way we can maintain a credible deterrent and reduce the number of weapons in our stockpile without resorting to testing our stockpile or pursuing a modernization program." ...

"Currently, the United States is the only declared nuclear power that is neither modernizing its nuclear arsenal nor has the capability to produce a new nuclear warhead," Gates said...

"Let me be clear: The program we propose is not about new nuclear capabilities -- suitcase bombs or bunker-busters or tactical nukes," he said. "It is about safety, security and reliability."

Chinese officials and emissaries of the Dalai Lama are expected to resume talks on Friday about the future of Tibet despite low expectations for a breakthrough and growing disillusionment among exiled Tibetans over the halting diplomatic process.

Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile in Dharamsala, India, confirmed that two senior envoys left New Delhi on Thursday for a five-day trip to Beijing. He said the Chinese had not provided a schedule but predicted that talks would begin on Friday.

"They will get down to business," he said in a telephone interview. <...>

The precise agenda for this week's Beijing meeting is uncertain, though Chinese authorities have said they are only willing to discuss the future of the Dalai Lama himself and possible terms for his return to China. Tibetan envoys believe the talks should be framed around the future of Tibet, greater religious tolerance and other issues. The two sides have long sparred over what would constitute the Dalai Lama's goal of "genuine autonomy" within China.

"The task at hand is to develop a system that would grant the kind of autonomy required for the Tibetans to be able to survive as a distinct and prosperous people within the People's Republic of China," said one of the senior Tibetan envoys in the talks, Lodi Gyaltsen Gyari, during a speech earlier this month at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.

Municipal officials in the Netherlands are taking another crack at stopping drug tourists flooding into their country to take advantage of the country's soft drugs policy.

The Dutch association for municipalities, VNG, announced Tuesday, Oct. 28 that it will host a soft drugs summit in the third week of November in Maastricht. Participants will seek ways to discourage tourists who visit the Netherlands to take advantage of its liberal drug laws. By extension, the summit also seeks to reduce drug-related crime.

The summit comes in the wake of last week's decision by the south- western Dutch towns of Roosendaal and Bergen op Zoom to gradually close their local "coffee shops" in an attempt to reduce drug-related crimes.

All Dutch cities and towns close to the German or Belgian borders are invited to the summit. After the summit, the VNG will present the cities' common position to the government.

Miniature tag technology has helped unlock the mysteries of the journey undertaken by juvenile salmon in the North-West United States.

A team of researchers fitted the novel devices to 1,000 of the young fish and tracked their progress from the Rockies through the Pacific to Alaska.

The scientists hope to use the tags in the future to learn more about the movements of other small fish species.

The study was part of a 10-year global project called Census of Marine Life.

Although tags have been used in the past to track mature salmon along their coastal migration, it is the first time the technology has been used on juveniles, otherwise known as smolt.

George Bathurst, Managing Director of Honeycomb Solutions said: "This cutting edge system will revolutionise the way we keep our children safe by ensuring that only authorised people can get into the classroom. Even when you have authorisation staff will know who you are, and when arrived. This can be monitored centrally, providing an additional layer of security. We predict that within the next five years this system will become common place across the country."

Fingerprints off the street | Guardian | 27 Oct 2008

Every police force in the UK is to be equipped with mobile fingerprint scanners - handheld devices that allow police to carry out identity checks on people in the street.

The new technology, which ultimately may be able to receive pictures of suspects, is likely to be in widespread use within 18 months. Tens of thousands of sets - as compact as BlackBerry smartphones - are expected to be distributed. The police claim the scheme, called Project Midas, will transform the speed of criminal investigations. A similar, heavier machine has been tested during limited trials with motorway patrols. To address fears about mass surveillance and random searches, the police insist fingerprints taken by the scanners will not be stored or added to databases. ...

The tender document for Midas states: "Bidders' solutions ... should include, but may not be limited to, fingerprint identification capability." Plans for a police Facial Images National Database (Find) were suspended last year but are being reviewed. One of the companies bidding for the Midas contract, Northrop Grumman, told the Guardian: "A lot of the hand-held [devices] we are considering have cameras so they can support fingerprint and facial images".

... With auto companies closing factories that produce sport utility vehicles in favor of smaller, gas-efficient cars, it may be hard to veer back to the gas-guzzling days very quickly. But Dan Lopez, business manager at the Ford dealership in the Louisiana town of Sulphur, near here, says he has already noticed a shift. Truck sales froze over the summer, he said, but now "some people are gradually getting back into the truck market. We're used to the comforts, frills and whistles, and so if gasoline goes down to a reasonable level, people will not stay in a little boxy fuel-efficient car." <...>

Data compiled by MasterCard Advisors, covering both credit and cash sales of gasoline, had been showing a strong decline of gasoline consumption in early October, when prices were still high. For the weeks ending Oct. 3 and Oct. 10, for example, gasoline sales were down 9.5 percent and 9.7 percent, respectively, compared with the same weeks in 2007.

But a MasterCard Advisors report released Tuesday showed that in the last two weeks, with pump prices falling, consumption of gasoline was down only 6.4 percent in each week compared with the same weeks of 2007.

Michael McNamara, vice president of MasterCard's SpendingPulse data service, said gasoline consumption declined in recent months because of a combination of the slowing economy and high prices at the pump. "You are starting to get some easing from one of the two pressure points," he added.

Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst at the Oil Price Information Service, said: "Demand is trickling back among everyday people." He added that gasoline retailers around the country were telling him "they are probably past the bottom of demand destruction for 2008, meaning they see subtle signs that gasoline demand is increasing." ...

Tony Blair's earnings since leaving Downing Street are calculated to have topped £12 million, more than six times his previous lifetime income.

The former Prime Minister, who tours the world speaking to audiences including investment banks, private equity firms and chambers of commerce, is now said to be the highest-paid speaker in the world. Since launching himself on the speaking circuit last October, Mr Blair is understood to have earned more from speeches than Bill Clinton, the former US President, did in his first year after leaving the White House.

As the stock market has plummeted and the housing market has slumped, the man who as Prime Minister championed the "light-touch" system of financial regulation blamed by some for the current crisis is enjoying an unprecedented boom of his own.

Mr Blair receives £84,000 of taxpayers' money to run a private office and is entitled to an annual pension of £63,468, but this pales to insignificance beside his private earnings. He has made £4.6 million from his memoirs, an estimated £2 million from JPMorgan Chase -- including bonus -- and £500,000 from Zurich Financial Services. On top of that he has exceeded the $9.2 million (£5.8 million) that Mr Clinton earned, according to his wife Hillary's financial disclosures, from speeches in his first year outside the White House.