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World business quick take

■Europe
Slow growth for euro-zone
The euro-zone economy probably won't reach 1 percent growth this year and may only reach 0.7 percent, the EU Economics Commissioner Petro Solbes said Saturday. Solbes said it was "improbable"' that the euro-zone economy would reach its forecast of 1 percent growth this year. While the third and fourth quarters may change things, EU indicators today point to a rate that could be 0.7 percent, he said. The EU expects a recovery of 2.3 percent next year. The European Commission has painted a gloomy picture for the euro-zone economy this year, saying a strong euro and weak business invest-ment were holding back the continent's economy.

■ Internet
Lawmakers join spam war
Microsoft Corp and other Internet providers are at odds with state lawmakers and state officials from Missouri to California over proposed legislation limiting junk e-mail or "spam," the Washington Post reported. Microsoft as well as Yahoo Inc and America Online, a unit of AOL Time Warner Inc, market to their own members via e-mail, and argue the laws should be aimed at purveyors of frauds, the newspaper said. Lawmakers, however, are advocating such measures as "do-not-spam registries" similar to the recently established "do-not-call" list for telemarketers, according to the newspaper. Microsoft, in particular, has lobbied heavily against such efforts, the Post said. The attorney general of Missouri, Jay Nixon, has accused Microsoft of protecting its franchise of selling spam filters. "They are attempting to run a protection racket," he said. "Pay us and you won't get spammed as much."

■ Regulation
S Korea breaks up chaebol
SK Group, Hyundai Group and nine other South Korean industrial conglomerates must sell 1.7 trillion won (US$1.4 billion) of shares they own in units or face losing their voting rights on the stock, the government said. The family-owned industrial empires known as chaebol who have a combined 342 affiliates, have failed to meet a requirement that they pare investment in units to 25 percent or less of their net value, the FTC said in a statement. SK Group leads the violators with holdings exceeding the limit by 769 billion won, it said. The companies have been moving to meet the target, the commission said. The groups pared cross-holdings to 29.2 trillion won by the end of March, or about 25.3 percent. The Korean government promised the IMF it would break up the cross-shareholdings of the business empires as part of an agreement for a US$57 billion bailout following the 1997 Asian financial crisis.

■ Petroleum
Iraq needs more electricity
Iraq, holder of the world's second-largest oil reserves, needs to invest about US$5 billion in power plants to meet demand for electricity, the country's chief civil administrator, Paul Bremer, said. "There is not enough power generation in this country to meet current demand, let alone future needs," Bremer said during a press briefing. The US Agency for International Development, which is leading the reconstruction effort in Iraq with a budget of US$1.2 billion, has spent US$20 million on restoring power supplies, the agency's Iraq director, Lewis Lucke, said. The agency plans to spend "much more" on the power industry, which is meeting little more than half the demand of about 6,000 megawatts, Lewis said.

Agencies
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