Yemen will ask donors for about $10 billion in urgent aid at a "Friends of Yemen" meeting to be held in the Saudi capital later this month, the country's planning minister said on Wednesday.

"We are talking about $10 billion that we will need for economic recovery, to stabilize the economy and the currency," Mohammed Said al-Saadi told AFP on the sidelines of a donors conference in Sanaa.

Syria's economy is expected to contract significantly in 2012 due to 14 months of violence and sanctions, a top official at the International Monetary Fund said on Wednesday.

"We do expect contraction in GDP (Gross Domestic Product) this year," the head of the IMF's Middle East, North Africa, Gulf and Central Asia Department, Masood Ahmed, told Agence France Presse, adding that the drop is poised to be "significant".

Iran's state-run oil company is denying that China and Japan had sharply cut imports of Iranian crude, maintaining Tehran's assertions that economic sanctions imposed by the West were having little effect.

Mohsen Qamsari, international affairs director of the National Iranian Oil Co, told the Mehr news agency that exports to China "have not decreased at all" and that "all of the contracts between Japanese refineries and NIOC have been extended until the end of the year."

World Bank president Robert Zoellick said Tuesday that Europe would struggle to achieve needed economic reforms without growth to support them.

"I think right now Europe depends on what happens with Italy and Spain," Zoellick said in a CNBC television interview.

General Motors and Ford saw their U.S. sales skid in April as rivals Chrysler, Toyota and Volkswagen posted strong gains, industry data showed Tuesday.

Total industry sales rose 2.3 percent from a year ago, while the sales pace was unchanged from March at a seasonally adjusted, annualized rate of 14.4 million vehicles, according to Autodata.

Etihad Airways, the United Arab Emirates carrier said Tuesday it has acquired a 2.987 per cent stake in Irish airline Aer Lingus.

Etihad said the "purchase reflected its desire to forge a commercial partnership with the Irish national carrier," adding that "a possible partnership could produce significant commercial benefits for both airlines."

Australia's Woodside Petroleum on Tuesday said it had sold a minority stake in its proposed Browse gas export project to a Japanese consortium for U.S. $2 billion.

Woodside is the major equity holder and operator of the Browse LNG Development in Western Australia and offloaded a 14.7 percent interest to Japan Australia LNG, a joint venture of the Mitsui and Mitsubishi trading houses.

Coca-Cola, the world's largest beverage company, on Monday denied media reports it was in talks to buy energy-drink giant Monster Beverage.

"At this time, we are not in discussions to acquire the Monster Beverage Corporation, Coke said in a statement.

U.S. aircraft leasing firm Air Lease said Monday it has bought eight new Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner aircraft to lease to Vietnam Airlines.

Financial details of the purchase were not revealed. The catalog value of the planes is $1.8 billion.

German sportswear maker Adidas reported Monday a strong rise in first-quarter profits but warned full-year earnings would be hit by the discovery of irregularities in its Indian business.

Adidas reported a net profit of 289 million euros ($383 million) in the period January to March, up 38 percent over the year-earlier figure.