A bill awaiting President Bush's signature would allow shipments of civilian nuclear fuel and know-how to India, setting up a major shift in US policy as Washington tries to deepen ties with a democratic Asian power. Bush was expected to sign the measure into law in a ceremony on Monday. The bill carves out an exemption in American law to allow US civilian nuclear trade with India in exchange for Indian safeguards and inspections at its 14 civilian nuclear plants; eight military plants would remain off-limits. - Congressional action was needed because US law bars nuclear trade with countries, such as India, that have not agreed to full international inspections.

Japan's

outspoken defence minister, Fumio Kyuma, has said he will avoid paying his respects at Tokyo's Yasukuni shrine as long as World War Two prime minister Hideki Tojo was honoured there. Yasukuni is seen by critics as a symbol of Japan's past military aggression, partly because it honours wartime leaders later condemned by an Allied tribunal as war criminals. Tojo served as prime minister for much of the war and was later sentenced to death by the Allied tribunal.

Pakistani

Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri will visit Iran this week to take stock of Iran-Pakistan bilateral relations and discuss international issues of mutual interest, the foreign ministry announced in Islamabad on Monday. Spokeswoman Tasneem Aslam said the proposed Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project might also figure in Kasuri's talks with Iranian government leaders. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had discussed hitches in the project with Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran on telephone last week.

Several foreign governments on Monday vowed to provide an additional 46 million dollars in emergency funding for typhoon-stricken areas in the Philippines.More than 3,000 left-wing activists have staged a protest in Manila's financial district to call for Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo's ouster over a raft of allegations and condemn an attempt by her allies to revise the constitution. The protesters occupied a key intersection below tall office buildings and near a shopping center, clogging traffic which has grown worse as Christmas approached.

Thousands of Hmong refugees in Thailand could be forced to return to Laos under a deal announced on Monday between the two countries, despite concerns that they would face political persecution. More than 6500 Hmong have crossed from Laos into Thailand since 2004 and are currently living in Huay Nam Khao village in Northeastern province of Phetchabun, 300 kilometers north of Bangkok. Laos in the past denied the refugees are Laotian, describing it as Thailand's problem.