European Union foreign ministers say they have agreed to open free trade negotiations with Japan.

Cyprus' commerce minister Neoklis Sylikiotis, whose country holds the bloc's rotating chairmanship, says Thursday talks could start in the next few months. They are likely to last about three years.

Japanese industrial firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Thursday they would merge their thermal power businesses by 2014 as they take on global giants Siemens and General Electric.

The pair said they would set up a joint venture company that was 65 percent owned by Mitsubishi with the remaining 35 percent held by Hitachi, creating a combined firm with about 1.1 trillion yen ($13 billion) in annual sales.

Unemployment in Germany increased slightly in November, amid signs that the labor market is increasingly feeling the pinch from the eurozone debt crisis, official data showed on Thursday.

The jobless rate, both in raw and seasonally adjusted terms, was unchanged in November from October, but the adjusted jobless total increased slightly, the Federal Labor Agency said in a statement.

U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday called for a pre-Christmas deal with Republicans to avert a year-end tax and deficit crunch, as pressure mounted from the business world and stock markets fluttered.

U.S. lawmakers demanded urgent action to keep America from tumbling off the so-called "fiscal cliff," and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was to drive the point home Thursday when he meets members of Congress to discuss "a balanced approach to reduce our deficit," his office said.

Japanese industrial firms Hitachi and Mitsubishi Heavy Industries said Thursday they would merge their thermal power businesses by 2014 as they take on global giants Siemens and General Electric.

The pair said they would set up a joint venture company that was 65 percent owned by Mitsubishi with the remaining 35 percent held by Hitachi, creating a combined firm with about 1.1 trillion yen ($13 billion) in annual sales.

Spain pushed forward on Wednesday with a major overhaul of the country's stricken banking sector after Brussels approved EU-funded restructuring plans, and with nationalised Bankia saying it will slash 6,000 jobs and is set for a huge loss.

Meanwhile the Bank of Spain delivered more bad news on the overall economy, saying country appears stuck in a job-killing recession in the fourth quarter.

An inquiry into the theft of some $900 million which led to the near-collapse of Afghanistan's largest bank has found there was high-level political interference over who should face prosecution.

The scandal touched a brother of President Hamid Karzai and a brother of his vice president Marshal Mohammad Qasim Fahim, who were shareholders in the bank, but they have not been charged with any wrongdoing.

Qantas Airways on Wednesday severed a lucrative marketing deal with Tourism Australia after claiming its boss was leading a consortium trying to unseat the airline's management and buy out the company.

The carrier said it had advised the country's official tourism agency it was halting the Aus$50 million (U.S.$52 million) deal "due to a potential conflict of interest of the agency's chairman", former Qantas chief Geoff Dixon.

The World Bank on Tuesday approved a $6.4 million grant to improve water and sewage services in the Gaza Strip in the wake of an eight-day firefight between Israel and the territory's Hamas rulers.

The infrastructure in the impoverished Palestinian enclave -- with a population of more than 1.5 million people -- has been deteriorating in recent years and the area is now "choked with untreated sewage," the Bank said.

The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said Egypt can still get its $4.8 billion loan agreed last week despite fresh political turmoil as long as there is "no major change" in its reform commitments.

The IMF also said that the funding, provisionally agreed on November 20, would also hinge on whether other bilateral lenders stick to their loan promises after President Mohamed Morsi issued a decree that granted himself sweeping powers.