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World Business Quick Take

■ Italy
Banking causes political row
The Italian government was appearing increasingly divided in the fallout over the country's embattled central bank governor and disputed takeover offers, with a key minister on Saturday vowing to block any measure that could thwart one of the bids. The political storm over the banking situation is widely expected to color Friday's Cabinet meeting. "We'll see on Friday," Labor Minister Roberto Maroni told the Italian news agency ANSA. "We intend to oppose to the end any operation which would make [Bank of Italy Governor Antonio] Fazio a scapegoat." Maroni said that he feared the Cabinet would discuss a proposal that "aims to interfere with financial operations in course," a reference to Banca Popolare Italiana Scarl's takeover offer for Banca Antonveneta SpA.

■ United States
Housing boom to peter out
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan forecast on Saturday that a phenomenal boom in US housing will "inevitably simmer down." "Near term, the housing boom will inevitably simmer down," Greenspan said in prepared remarks for an economic summit in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. "As part of that process, house turnover will decline from currently historic levels, while home price increases will slow and prices could even decrease," he predicted. "An end to the housing boom could induce a significant rise in the personal saving rate, a decline in imports and a corresponding improvement in the current-account deficit," he said.

■ China
Textile talks drag on
European and Chinese trade negotiators sought to hammer out a solution yesterday to a dispute over textiles that has left crates of Chinese-made clothing stranded at Europe's ports. There was no word on any progress in the closed-door talks, which began on Thursday, said Michael Jennings, a spokesman for the EU office in Beijing. Shiploads of Chinese textiles have been stopped by EU customs authorities because they exceed import limits recently imposed to stem a surge in goods from China. The negotiating team from Brussels, led by the director of the EU Trade Defense Directorate, Fritz-Harald Wenig, was expected to seek changes to the existing accord that could bring forward import allowances to ease the holdup. But the state-run newspaper China Business News cited officials last week as saying that Beijing was unlikely to agree to use up next-year's allowance early, likening that to "eating dinner at breakfast-time."

■ United States
Bankruptcy code tougher
The new US bankruptcy code, which will take effect on Oct. 17, may have companies such as Delphi Corp and Northwest Airlines Corp reconsidering reorganization as rules become more stringent, Martin Fridson, publisher of Distressed Debt Investor, wrote in Barron's. The new bankruptcy rules will make it more difficult for companies to defer payment of utility bills and executive compensation restrictions will make it harder to retain or hire a top manager to help with a company turn-around, Fridson wrote in a Barron's article posted today on the newspaper's Web site. The new codes also impose an 18-month limit on the incumbent management's exclusive right to suggest a reorganization plan, while for retailers the new rules reduce the time a company has to decide which of its leases to shed, Fridson wrote.

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