Oil prices were higher in Asian trade Tuesday buoyed by an expected crude supply cut in the North Sea and intensifying talk of an Israeli military strike against Iran, analysts said.

New York's main contract, light sweet crude for delivery in September, gained 23 cents to $92.96 a barrel, while Brent North Sea crude for September advanced two cents to $113.62.

The Group of 20 top economies will meet shortly to try and coordinate a response to soaring food prices, driven by drought and rising demand, the Financial Times reported Monday.

Over the weekend, U.S. President Barack Obama called on Congress to help farmers struggling with the worst U.S. drought in half a century after the U.S. Department of Agriculture warned of sharply rising crop prices.

Swiss private banking group Julius Baer said Monday it will acquire Merrill Lynch's International Wealth Management business outside the United States from Bank of America for some 860 million Swiss francs ($879 million, 716 million euros).

The acquisition, subject to shareholder and regulatory approvals, is expected to add up to 72 billion Swiss francs to assets under management over the next two years, the bank said in a statement.

Australia's struggling BlueScope Steel Monday announced a U.S. $1.36 billion joint venture with Japan's Nippon Steel in a bid to tap new markets and help ease concerns over its balance sheet.

The 50-50 joint venture, NS BlueScope Coated Products, will see Nippon Steel acquire half of BlueScope's interest in its Southeast Asian and North American building products businesses.

Growth in export-driven Japan slowed in the three months to June, official data showed Monday, with the debt crisis in Europe and the unsteady global economy crimping demand.

Gross domestic product grew a worse-than-expected 0.3 percent in the second quarter from the previous three months, the Cabinet Office said, a fourth straight rise but much slower than the brisk 1.3 percent seen in January-March.

Faltering economic growth will undercut global oil demand this year and next, the International Energy Agency said Friday, citing slowdowns in China and the United States in particular.

"Sluggish economic growth could restrict annual oil demand growth to 0.9 million barrels per day in 2012 and 0.8 mbpd in 2013, with demand averaging 89.6 mbpd and 90.5 mbpd," down from last month's estimates of 89.9 mbpd and 90.9 mbpd, respectively, the IEA said in its latest Oil Market Report.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, is still growing but the outlook is becoming increasingly clouded by "substantial risks" from the debt crisis, the economy ministry warned Friday.

"In a difficult European environment, the German economy is continuing to show itself to be fairly robust," the ministry said in its latest monthly report.

Several Spanish regions plan to charge pupils who bring their own lunch to school a fee to eat in the cafeteria, in the struggle to bring public deficits under control.

The northeastern region of Catalonia has said it will charge students who bring a packed lunch up to three euros ($3.70) a time to use a school canteen and the adjoining region of Valencia plans a similar move.

First Britain upset the French government by offering a home to any high earners seeking to flee a new top tax band, and now the U.S. state of Mississippi is making a bid to recruit wealthy exiles.

France's new Socialist leader President Francois Hollande plans to slap a tax of 75 percent on all income in excess of a million euros ($1.24 million), and territories with lower rates are hoping for a cash exodus.

The euro has fallen in value against most major currencies in recent months as volatility on the foreign exchange markets has increased in the debt crisis, the European Central Bank said Thursday.

"Between the end of April and early August 2012, the effective exchange rate of the euro depreciated overall amid a renewed increase in volatility," the ECB wrote in its regular monthly bulletin.