South Korea's cabinet Tuesday endorsed a bill which sets up a special fund to cover the huge cost of potential reunification with North Korea.

The bill calls for dividing the existing Inter-Korean Cooperation Fund into two accounts -- one for promoting cross-border cooperation and the other for covering unification costs, said the unification ministry.

Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday rejected allegations from U.S. regulators that it hid $250 billion in transactions with Iranian banks for almost a decade in violation of U.S. sanctions.

The bank's shares plunged 14.9 percent to HK$160.10 at the close of trade in Hong Kong and opened 15.7 percent lower in London after New York state regulators branded the lender a "rogue bank".

Iran's currency plunged five percent on Monday in street trading after the central bank announced an imminent decision to revise upwards its official fixed exchange rate used as a market reference.

Money changers were exchanging one U.S. dollar for 21,450 rials at midday, significantly higher than Sunday's 20,440 rate.

Greece's international creditors called their Sunday talks with Athens productive and said the country was committed to hammering out further spending cuts to secure a new tranche of aid.

The so-called troika of creditors -- the EU, IMF and the European Central Bank -- met about the reforms Greece needs to implement to secure 31.5 billion euros ($39 billion) in aid and stay afloat.

U.S. auto giant General Motors said Monday that its sales in China surged to a record 199,503 vehicles in July, defying a market slowdown and moves by a major Chinese city to limit car numbers.

GM's sales in China -- the world's biggest auto market -- rose 15.1 percent in July from the same month last year, it said in a statement.

Asian markets rebounded strongly Monday on better-than-expected U.S. jobs data while traders took a more positive view of the European Central Bank's position on the Eurozone debt crisis.

The single currency hit its highest level against the dollar in a month as concerns over the Eurozone and the U.S. eased, while hopes grew that Greece will meet its obligations to qualify for another tranche of rescue cash.

The U.S. economy created a solid 163,000 jobs in July, helping President Barack Obama dull Republican attacks despite a slight uptick in the jobless rate.

The Labor Department said Friday that unemployment rose 0.1 points to 8.3 percent, in a monthly report that was nevertheless heralded as evidence that the world's largest economy is still on track.

The International Monetary Fund on Friday announced it was opening a "precautionary" $6.2 billion line of credit for Morocco to protect the economy from external shocks.

"The Moroccan authorities have stated that they... do not intend to draw on the line, unless Morocco experiences actual balance of payments needs from a deterioration of external conditions," the IMF said in a statement.

Standard & Poor's on Friday cut the ratings on 15 Italian banks, but left ratings unchanged for market leaders UniCredit, Intesa Sanpaolo and Mediobanca.

The agency said the ratings cuts -- which included Unione di Banche Italiane, better known as UBI -- reflected "increased credit risk for the Italian economy and its banks."

The International Monetary Fund on Friday issued a $2 billion loan for Jordan to steady the country's battered economy and protect it from external "shocks" in the region.

The IMF executive board approved the three-year loan, making $385.35 million immediately available, the fund said in a statement.