Egypt's Mursi to meet judges over power grab

CAIRO (Reuters) - Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi meets senior judges on Monday to try to defuse a crisis over his seizure of new powers which has set off violent protests reminiscent of the revolution last year that led to the rise of his Islamist movement.

The justice minister said he believed Mursi would agree with the country's highest judicial authority on its proposal to limit the scope of the new powers.

But the protesters, some camped in Cairo's Tahrir Square, have said only retracting the decree will satisfy them, a sign of the deep rift between Islamists and their opponents that is destabilizing Egypt two years after Hosni Mubarak was ousted.

"There is no use amending the decree," said Tarek Ahmed, 26, a protester who stayed the night in Tahrir, where tents covered the central traffic circle. "It must be scrapped."

One person has been killed and about 370 injured in clashes between police and protesters since Mursi issued the decree on Thursday shielding his decisions from judicial review, emboldened by international plaudits for brokering an end to eight days of violence between Israel and Hamas.

The stock market is down more than 7 percent.

Mursi's political opponents have accused him of behaving like a dictator and the West has voiced its concern, worried by more turbulence in a country that has a peace treaty with Israel and lies at the heart of the Arab Spring.

Mursi's administration has defended his decree as an effort to speed up reforms and complete a democratic transformation. Leftists, liberals, socialists and others say it has exposed the autocratic impulses of a man once jailed by Mubarak.

Mursi's office said he would meet Egypt's highest judicial authority, the Supreme Judicial Council, on Monday, and the council hinted at compromise.

Mursi's decree should apply only to "sovereign matters", it said, suggesting it did not reject the declaration outright, and called on judges and prosecutors, some of whom began a strike on Sunday, to return to work.

Justice Minister Ahmed Mekky, speaking about the council statement, said: "I believe President Mohamed Mursi wants that."

LIBERALS ANGRY

The protesters are worried that Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood aims to dominate the post-Mubarak era after winning the first democratic parliamentary and presidential elections this year.

A deal with a judiciary dominated by Mubarak-era judges, which Mursi has pledged to reform, may not placate them.

A group of lawyers and activists have also challenged Mursi's decree in an administrative court, which said it would hold its first hearing on December 4. Other decisions by Mursi have faced similar legal challenges brought to court by opponents.

Banners in Tahrir called for dissolving the assembly drawing up a constitution, an Islamist-dominated body Mursi made immune from legal challenge. Many liberals and others have walked out of the assembly saying their voices were not being heard.

Only once a constitution is written can a new parliamentary election be held. Until then, legislative and executive power remains in Mursi's hands, and Thursday's decree puts his decisions above judicial oversight.

One Muslim Brotherhood member was killed and 60 people were hurt on Sunday in an attack on the main office of the Brotherhood in the Egyptian Nile Delta town of Damanhour, the website of the Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party said.

The party's offices have also been attacked in other cities.

One politician said the scale of the crisis could push opponents towards a deal to avoid a further escalation. Mursi's opponents have called for a big demonstration on Tuesday.

"I am very cautiously optimistic because the consequences are quite, quite serious, the most serious they have been since the revolution," said Mona Makram Ebeid, former member of parliament and prominent figure in Egyptian politics.

Mursi's office repeated assurances that the steps would be temporary, and said he wanted dialogue with political groups to find "common ground" over what should go into the constitution.

Talks with Mursi have been rejected by members of a National Salvation Front, a new opposition coalition that brings together liberal, leftist and other politicians and parties, who until Mursi's decree had been a fractious bunch struggling to unite.

MILITARY STAYING OUT

"There is no room for dialogue when a dictator imposes the most oppressive, abhorrent measures and then says 'let us split the difference'," prominent opposition leader and Mohamed ElBaradei said on Saturday. He has said he expected to act as the Front's coordinator.

The military has stayed out of the crisis after leading Egypt through a messy 16-month transition to a presidential election in June. Analysts say Mursi neutralized the army when he sacked top generals in August, appointing a new generation who now owe their advancement to the Islamist president.

Though the military still wields influence through business interests and a security role, it is out of frontline politics.

Egypt had hoped to stop the economic rot by signing an initial deal last week for a $4.8 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund. As well as tumbling share prices, yields at a Sunday treasury bill auction rose, putting even more pressure on the government that faces a crushing budget deficit.

"We are back to square one, politically, socially," said Mohamed Radwan of Pharos Securities, an Egyptian brokerage firm.

(Additional reporting by Tom Perry, Patrick Werr and Marwa Awad in Cairo; Editing by Philippa Fletcher and Giles Elgood)

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Euro zone to seek Greek aid deal without write-off

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund began their third attempt in as many weeks to release emergency aid for Greece on Monday, with policymakers saying a write-down of Greek debt is off the table for now.

Greek Finance Minister Yannis Stournaras voiced confidence the ministers would finally reach a deal after Greece had fulfilled it's part of the deal by enacting tough austerity measures and economic reforms.

"I'm certain we will find a mutually beneficial solution today," he said on arrival for what was set to be another marathon meeting.

Greece, where the euro zone's debt crisis erupted in late 2009, is the currency area's most heavily indebted country, despite a big "haircut" this year on privately-held bonds. Its economy has shrunk by nearly 25 percent in five years.

EU Economic and Monetary Affairs Olli Rehn said it was vital to disburse the next 31 billion euro tranche of aid "to end the uncertainty that is still hanging over Greece". He urged all sides to "go the last centimeter because we are so close to an agreement".

Greece had met international lenders' conditions and "Now it is delivery time for the Eurogroup and the IMF," Rehn said.

Negotiations have been stalled over how Greece's debt, forecast to peak at almost 190 percent of gross domestic product next year, can be cut to a more sustainable 120 percent by 2020.

Without agreement on how to reduce the debt, the IMF has held up payments to Athens because there is no guarantee of when the need for emergency financing will end.

The key question is: Can Greek debt become sustainable without the euro zone writing off some of the loans to Athens?

IMF Managing Director Christine Lagarde said on arrival that the solution must be "credible for Greece". The IMF argues that the debt can only be made manageable if euro zone governments forgive some of their loans to Athens, but Germany and its northern European allies have so far rejected any such idea.

DEBT RELIEF "NOT ON TABLE"

German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told reporters on arrival that a debt cut was legally impossible, not just in Germany but for other euro zone countries, if it was linked to a new guarantee of loans.

"You cannot guarantee something if you're cutting debt at the same time," he said. That might not preclude debt relief at a later stage if Greece has completed its adjustment program and no longer needs new loans.

The German banking association (BDB) said a fresh "haircut" or forced reduction in the value of Greek sovereign debt, must only happen as a last resort.

Two European Central Bank policymakers, vice-president Vitor Constancio and executive board member Joerg Asmussen, said debt forgiveness was not on the agenda for now.

"It has been clearly stated. It is not on the table. Everything else is just rumors," Constancio told reporters in Berlin.

Asmussen told Germany's Bild newspaper the package of measures would include a substantial reduction of interest rates on loans to Greece and a debt buy-back by Greece, funded by loans from a euro zone rescue fund.

So far, the options under consideration include reducing interest on already extended bilateral loans to Greece from the current 150 basis points above financing costs.

How much lower is not yet decided -- France and Italy would like to reduce the rate to 30 basis points (bps), while Germany and some other countries insist on a 90 bps margin.

Another option, which could cut Greek debt by almost 17 percent of GDP, is to defer interest payments on loans to Greece from the EFSF, a temporary bailout fund, by 10 years.

The European Central Bank could forego profits on its Greek bond portfolio, bought at a deep discount, cutting the debt pile by a further 4.6 percent by 2020, a document prepared for the ministers' talks last week showed.

Not all euro zone central banks are willing to forego their profits, however, the German Bundesbank among them.

Greece could also buy back its privately-held bonds on the market at a deep discount, with gains from the operation depending on the scope and price.

But the preparatory document from last week said that the 120 percent target could not be reached in 2020, only two years later, unless ministers accept losses on their loans to Athens, provide additional financing or force private creditors into selling Greek debt at a discount.

The latest analysis for the ministers showed the debt could come down to 125 percent of GDP in 2020, one euro zone official with insight into the talks said.

FORGIVING OFFICIAL LOANS?

To cut the debt more boldly, the IMF wants the euro zone to forgive Greece some of the official loans, in what is called Official Sector Involvement (OSI) in EU jargon.

"OSI is at the core of the problems with reaching a deal," one euro zone official with insight into the talks said.

German central bank governor Jens Weidmann has suggested that Greece could "earn" a reduction in debt it owes to euro zone governments in a few years if it diligently implements all the agreed reforms. The European Commission backs that view.

An opinion poll published on Monday showed Greece's anti-bailout SYRIZA party with a four-percent lead over the Conservatives who won election in June, adding to uncertainty over the future of reforms.

German paper Welt am Sonntag said on Sunday that euro zone ministers were considering a write-down of official loans for Greece from 2015, but gave no sources, and a euro zone official said such an option was never seriously discussed.

French Finance Minister Pierre Moscovici said on Sunday that euro zone ministers made big progress to reach a common position during at a conference call on Saturday in preparation for their talks with the IMF on Monday.

"We are very close to a solution," he said.

Moscovici mentioned the reduction of interest on bilateral loans, foregoing ECB profits on Greek bonds and the debt buy-back as the options that would need to be applied for a deal as well as additional financing for Athens to keep it funded until 2016, rather than only until 2014.

(Additional reporting by Robert-Jan Bartunek, Ethan Bilby, Luke Baker in Brussels, Reinhardt Becker in Berlin, Astrid Wendlandt in Paris; Writing by Jan Strupczewski and Paul Taylor; editing by Philippa Fletcher)

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Congo says no talks with rebels unless they quit Goma

GOMA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) - Congo said on Sunday it would not negotiate with M23 rebels in the east until they pulled out of the city of Goma, but a rebel spokesman said Kinshasa was in no position to set conditions on peace talks.

Congolese President Joseph Kabila met with M23 for the first time on Saturday after an urgent summit in Uganda where regional leaders gave M23 two days to leave Goma, which the rebels seized six days ago after U.N.-backed government troops melted away.

Eight months into a rebellion that U.N. experts say is backed by neighboring Rwanda, the rebels have so far shown no sign of quitting the lakeside city of one million people.

The rebels say they plan to march on other cities in the east, and then strike out across the country to the capital Kinshasa, across 1,000 miles of dense jungle with few roads, a daunting feat achieved 15 years ago by Kabila's father.

Amani Kabasha, a spokesman for M23's political arm, welcomed the meeting with Kabila but questioned the government's resolve to end a crisis that risks engulfing the region.

"Why put conditions on talks? You pose conditions when you are in a position of strength. Is the government really in such a position?" Kabasha told Reuters in Goma, which sits on the north shore of Lake Kivu at Congo's eastern border with Rwanda.

Vianney Kazarama, the rebels' military spokesman, said government forces that had been reinforcing along the shores of the lake were now deploying in hills around the rebel held town of Sake and government-held Minova, both Goma's west.

A U.N. source in Minova said government soldiers had gone on a looting spree for a second straight night there. The town was calm on Sunday but gunshots rang out overnight, the source said.

"What is real is that the morale of the troops is very low. They've lost hope in the commanders," the U.N. source said.

The Congolese army has vowed to launch counter-offensives and win back lost territory. The rebels have warned the government against embarking on a "new military adventure".

So far, the unruly and poorly-led army has been little match for the rebels, despite assistance from a U.N. peacekeeping mission that deployed attack helicopters to support the government before Goma fell.

Rebel leaders share ethnic ties with the Tutsi leadership of Rwanda, a small but militarily capable neighbor that intervened often in eastern Congo in the 18 years since Hutu perpetrators of Rwanda's genocide took shelter there. Rwanda has repeatedly denied Congolese and U.N. accusations it is behind M23.

Saturday's Kampala summit called on the rebels to abandon their aim of toppling the government and proposed that government troops be redeployed inside Goma.

The rebels have not explicitly rejected or accepted the proposals. They are, however, unlikely to cede control of the city or accept government soldiers inside it.

WITHDRAW

Regional and international leaders are trying to halt the latest bout of violence in eastern Congo, where millions have died of hunger and disease in nearly two decades of fighting fuelled by local and regional politics, ethnic rifts and competition for reserves of gold, tin and coltan.

"Negotiations will start after the (M23) withdrawal from Goma," Congolese government spokesman Lambert Mende said.

Kabila was still in the Ugandan capital on Sunday morning but was expected to return to Kinshasa later in the day or on Monday, two Congo government sources said. Kabila's communications chief Andre Ngwej said he did not believe official talks would start in the next few days.

While Kabila's army is on the back foot, analysts are skeptical the rebels can make good on their threat to march on Kinshasa without major support from foreign backers.

The regional leaders' plan proposed deploying a joint force at Goma airport comprising of a company of neutral African troops, a company of the Congolese army (FARDC) and a company of the M23.

In a statement, the Kinshasa government said Tanzania would take command of the neutral force and that South Africa had offered "substantial" logistical and financial contributions towards it. The Kampala plan did not say what the consequences would be if the rebels did not comply.

(Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by James Macharia and Peter Graff)

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Separatist parties win Catalonia election in Spain

BARCELONA, Spain (Reuters) - Separatists in Catalonia won a large majority in regional elections but a poor result for the biggest Catalan nationalist party will complicate a push for a referendum on independence from Spain.

A deep recession and high unemployment have fuelled separatism in wealthy Catalonia, piling political uncertainty on Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy as he fights a debt crisis that could force Spain to seek an international bailout.

Flying pro-independence flags - a lone star against yellow and red stripes - Catalan voters on Sunday handed 87 seats, almost two-thirds of the local parliament, to four different parties that want a referendum on secession.

But voters also punished the movement's figurehead, Catalan President Artur Mas. His Convergence and Union, or CiU, remains the biggest party in the local parliament, but it lost 12 seats and Mas said he will have to ally with another party to govern.

Mas tried to ride the separatist wave after hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in September, demanding independence for Catalonia, a northeastern region with its own language that sees itself as distinct from the rest of Spain.

But Mas only recently backed Catalan independence, and while he stirred up enthusiasm for the idea, in the end he drove voters into the arms of parties seen as more genuinely representative of the separatist cause.

"Mas was hurt... The pro-independence movement is more distributed among different parties now, but the issue is important enough so that I think they will do everything to stay united," said Oriol Vilaseca, 38, who works for a family business and who voted for CiU.

With a population of 7.5 million people, export powerhouse Catalonia has an economy almost as big as Portugal. But it is labouring under a load of debt and Catalans think too much of their taxes go to the rest of Spain.

Mas, who has implemented tough austerity measures to rein in Catalonia's steep public deficit, said the situation was more complex now but he would still push for a referendum.

Unlike in Scotland, where the government of the United Kingdom has agreed to a 2014 referendum, a Catalan plebiscite on breaking away from Spain could trigger a constitutional crisis and the central government has vowed to block it.

Mas fell far short of his aim of winning an absolute majority of at least 68 seats, leaving the separatist movement without a strong leader to pressure Madrid to recognise Catalonia's right to hold a referendum.

LEFTIST SEPARATISTS WIN BIG

In Madrid, political leaders said Mas's poor showing would put an end to the referendum idea in Catalonia, which generates a fifth of the national economy.

"I've never seen such a ruinous political operation as Mas's," Prime Minister Rajoy said at a Monday meeting of leaders of his People's Party, or PP, according to El Mundo newspaper.

But leftist separatists who got a big boost in the polls said they were more determined than ever to hold a referendum.

"They've elected us to go ahead with a democratic project, It's massive support. We will have to respond to what the people have asked for," said Alfred Bosch, a deputy in the national Parliament in Madrid from the Republican Left, or ERC.

Bosch said the "will of the people" would trump any constitutional impediment to a plebiscite.

The ERC, a long-standing separatist party, was the big beneficiary of Mas's independence rhetoric, doubling its presence in the Catalan parliament to 21 seats and becoming the main opposition party in for the first time in its history.

The Socialists took 20 seats and the PP 19. Three other parties, including two that want a referendum on independence, split the remaining 25 seats.

Catalans traveled home from around Europe to vote in the election, which had a strong turnout of 68 percent, 10 percentage points higher than in the previous vote two years ago.

Spain's' borrowing costs rose and shares fell after the election result, reflecting some concern at the separatists' successes, but price moves were modest with investors focussed on efforts to solve Greece's debt problems.

A NEW MODEL FOR SPAIN

No matter what the election outcome was, the revival of Catalonia's long-dormant separatist movement will eventually force Spain to rethink the model it chose after the Francisco Franco dictatorship ended in the 1970s.

The 1978 constitution gave significant self-governing powers to the country's 17 autonomous regions, partly to appease centuries-old dreams of nationhood in Catalonia and the Basque Country.

Catalans and Basques have pushed for more autonomy, especially for more control over their taxes. But the flare up in separatism in Catalonia this year has been more radical.

Wary that separatism could spread to the Basque Country and beyond, Rajoy said the Catalan election was more important than general elections.

"The Catalan issue is an opportunity to discuss a model that has been under debate since its inception. It's about the territorial model for Spain," said Antonio Barroso, political analyst with Eurasia Group

Under the current model, Catalonia shares some tax revenue with the rest of Spain and many Catalans believe their economy would prosper if they could invest more of their taxes at home.

Barroso said Rajoy, who earlier this year refused to negotiate with Mas over taxes, would have to take up talks with Catalonia over modifications to the revenue sharing system.

Home to car factories and banks and the birthplace of surrealist painter Salvador Dali and architect Antoni Gaudi, the region also has one of the world's most successful football clubs, FC Barcelona.

ECONOMIC REALITY

Enthusiasm for independence could subside as Catalans contemplate the economic realities of a split from Spain, especially if the price to pay is leaving the European Union.

After a decade of overspending during Spain's real estate boom, Catalonia and most of the country's other regions are struggling to pay state workers and meet debt payments.

Catalonia has 44 billion euros of outstanding debt and the ratio of its debt to its gross domestic product is 22 percent, the highest among Spain's regions.

Mas was one of the first Spanish leaders to embark on harsh austerity measures after Catalonia's public deficit soared and the regional government was shunned by debt markets. He has also had to take billions of euros in bailout funds from the central government and he still has more fat to trim.

His austerity drive will run into trouble with the newly empowered Republican Left. Bosch said ERC would not form a coalition with Mas's CiU and would not agree to any more cuts in spending on schools and hospitals.

(Additional reporting Clare Kane in Madrid and Robert-Jan Bartunek in Brussels; Editing by Giles Elgood)

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Syrian jets bomb rebel base near Turkey border

BUKULMEZ, Turkey (Reuters) - Syrian warplanes bombed a rebel headquarters near the Turkish border on Monday, missing their target but sending hundreds of Syrians fleeing across the frontier.

The attack on the Free Syrian Army base in Atima, 2 km (1 mile) from the border, came a day before Turkish and NATO officials were due to start assessing where to station surface-to-air missiles close to the 900 km (560 mile) border.

Turkey, a major supporter of insurgents fighting to oust President Bashar al-Assad, has repeatedly scrambled jets along the joint border and responded in kind when Syrian shells have landed inside Turkey.

But Ankara, rejecting Syrian complaints that the Patriots were "provocative", stressed they would be used only to defend Turkish territory, not to create a no-fly zone inside Syria that rebels want to neutralize Assad's massive air power.

Describing the bombing of the FSA base, opposition activist Ahmed, who lives within a few blocks of it, said: "Two Syrian fighter jets came and fired five rockets. Three have hit farm areas and another two hit buildings near the base."

Monday's strike was one of the closest to the Turkish border carried out by Syrian jets. Ahmed said it was the first time they targeted the FSA base set up by senior rebel Mustafa al-Sheikh when he crossed over to Syria from Turkey two months ago.

Rebels fired anti-aircraft guns at the jets but they were flying too high to be hit, activists said. "I think the reason for the raid may have something to do with increased weapons movements (from Turkey)," Ahmed said.

Several hundred Syrians fled into Turkey after the raid and were being taken care of by the Turkish army. At least two wounded people were taken across the border.

The Turkish Anatolian news agency said an anti-aircraft shell fired during clashes in another Syrian border town, Harem, hit the roof of a house in the Turkish district of Reyhanli, causing no casualties.

After 20 months of conflict, rebels have been tightening their hold on farmland and urban centers to the east and northeast of Damascus, and have seized a string of military bases in the past 10 days.

PATRIOT DEPLOYMENT

A joint Turkish-NATO team will start work on Tuesday assessing where to put Patriot missiles, how many will be needed and the number of foreign troops to be sent to operate them.

Turkey is reluctant to be drawn into the fighting, but the proximity of Syrian bombing raids to its border is straining its nerves. It is worried about its neighbor's chemical weapons, the refugee crisis on its border, and what it says is Syrian support for Kurdish militants on its own soil.

Activists say more than 40,000 people have been killed in Syria's civil war, which started with peaceful demonstrations for reform but grew into demands for the overthrow of 42 years of dynastic rule by Assad and his late father, Hafez al-Assad.

Attacks by mainly Sunni Muslim rebels against Assad's forces have become increasingly effective and deadly. The president, from Syria's Alawite minority which is linked to Shi'ite Islam, has responded with devastating artillery and air bombardment.

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians have fled their country and more than 2 million more have been displaced. The opposition said last week $60 billion would be needed for reconstruction.

The military installations rebels have captured in the last 10 days include a major facility in the northern province of Aleppo and several bases around the capital Damascus.

EUPHRATES DAM CAPTURED

On Monday activists said rebels took control of the Tishreen dam on the Euphrates river, east of the city of Aleppo. Internet video footage showed gunmen inside what appeared to be the control room, undamaged following the rebel capture.

Other footage showed rebels opening up ammunition boxes, including one marked RPG (rocket-propelled grenades), which they said were seized from Assad's forces holding the dam.

On Sunday rebels said they had captured a helicopter base east of Damascus, their latest gain in a battle that is drawing nearer to Assad's seat of power in the capital.

The Marj al-Sultan base, 15 km (10 miles) from Damascus, is the second military facility on the outskirts of the city reported to fall to Assad's opponents this month. Activists said rebels destroyed two helicopters and taken 15 prisoners.

"We are coming for you Bashar!" a rebel shouted in an internet video of what activists said was Marj al-Sultan. Restrictions on non-state media meant it could not be verified.

The rebels have been tightening their hold on farmland and urban centers to the east and northeast of Damascus while a major battle has been under way for a week in the suburb of Daraya near the main highway south.

"We are seeing the starting signs of a rebel siege of Damascus," opposition campaigner Fawaz Tello said from Berlin. "Marj al-Sultan is very near to the Damascus Airport road and to the airport itself. The rebels appear to be heading toward cutting this as well as the main northern artery to Aleppo."

Assad's core forces, drawn mainly from his Alawite sect, are entrenched in the capital.

(Additional reporting by Khaled Yacoub Oweis in Amman, Erika Solomon in Beirut and Jonathon Burch in Ankara; Writing by Dominic Evans; Editing by Mark Heinrich)

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Thousands protest in Bangladesh after deadly blaze

DHAKA (Reuters) - Thousands of angry textile workers demonstrated in the outskirts of Dhaka on Monday after a fire swept through a garment workshop at the weekend, killing more than 100 people in Bangladesh's worst-ever factory blaze.

The fire has put a spotlight on global retailers that source clothes from Bangladesh, where the cost of labor is low - as little as $37 a month for some workers - and rights groups have called on big-brand firms to sign up to a fire safety program.

Workers from Tazreen Fashions and residents blocked roads and forced the closure of other factories in the industrial suburb of Ashulia, where the huge fire started on Saturday, demanding those responsible for the disaster be punished.

"I haven't been able to find my mother," said one worker, who gave her name as Shahida. "I demand justice, I demand that the owner be arrested."

Police and officials said narrow exits in the nine-storey building trapped workers inside, killing 111 people and injuring more than 150.

"This disastrous fire incident was a result of continuing neglect of workers' safety and their welfare," said Amirul Haque Amin, president of Bangladesh's National Garment Workers Federation.

"Whenever a fire or accident occurs, the government sets up an investigation and the authorities - including factory owners - pay out some money and hold out assurances to improve safety standards and working conditions. But they never do it."

PRESSURE ON GLOBAL FIRMS

Working conditions at Bangladeshi factories are notoriously poor, with little enforcement of safety laws. Overcrowding and locked fire doors are common.

More than 300 factories near the capital shut for almost a week this year as workers demanded higher wages and better conditions.

At least 500 people have died in clothing factory accidents in Bangladesh since 2006, according to fire brigade officials.

Bangladesh has about 4,500 garment factories and is the world's biggest exporter of clothing after China, with garments making up 80 percent of its $24 billion annual exports.

The International Labor Rights Forum (ILRF) said that U.S.-based PVH Corp, whose brands include Calvin Klein, Tommy Hilfiger and Van Heusen, entered into an agreement with unions and other rights groups earlier this year to develop a fire safety program in Bangladesh, but others have not signed up.

"We hope the tragic fire at Tazreen will serve as an urgent call to action for all major brands that rely on Bangladesh's low wages to make a profit," ILRF Executive Director Judy Gearhart said in a statement on Sunday.

"Their voluntary and confidential monitoring programs have failed; now it is time to come together and make a contractual commitment to workers, and to involve workers and their organizations in the solution."

Hong Kong-listed Li & Fung said in a statement it had placed orders for garments from Tazreen Fashions which were being manufactured on the premises where the fire broke out.

It said it would provide relief to victims' families, and carry out its own investigation into what caused the blaze.

The European spokesman for retailer C&A said Tazreen Fashions was due to deliver 220,000 sweatshirts for its Brazilian stores over the coming three months.

He said an independent company normally audits companies and factories for standards and working conditions before C&A enters into a business relationship with them, but the audit of Tazreen Fashions had not yet been carried out.

A spokesperson for U.S. retail chain Wal-Mart Stories Inc. in India said the company was "trying to determine if the factory has a current relationship with Walmart or one of our suppliers".

(Reporting by Serajul Quadir and Anis Ahmed; Writing by John Chalmers; Editing by Sophie Hares)

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Iran, Arabs criticize delay of Middle East nuclear talks

VIENNA (Reuters) - Iran and Arab nations on Monday criticized a decision to put off talks on banning atomic bombs in the Middle East, with Tehran blaming the United States for a "serious setback" to the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).

The United States said on Friday that the mid-December conference on creating a zone free of weapons of mass destruction would not occur and did not make clear when, or whether, it would take place. The United States, Britain and Russia are co-sponsors of the meeting.

The postponement "will have a negative impact on regional security and the international system to prevent nuclear proliferation as a whole," Arab League chief Nabil Elaraby said in a statement.

Iran, which is accused by the West of developing a nuclear weapons capability, said this month it would participate in the talks that had been due to take place in Helsinki, Finland.

Asked about the U.S. announcement, Iranian nuclear envoy Ali Asghar Soltanieh told state broadcaster Press TV from Vienna:

"It is a serious setback to the NPT and this is a clear sign that the U.S. is not committed to the obligation of a world free of nuclear weapons."

Elaraby said all regional states except Israel - widely believed to have the Middle East's only nuclear arsenal - had voiced willingness to attend the conference.

He called for urgent meeting of senior Arab officials this week to consider the developments.

Even if the talks eventually occur, Western diplomats and experts expect little progress any time soon due to the deep-rooted animosities in the region, notably the Arab-Israeli conflict and Israeli concerns about Iran's nuclear program.

Washington feared the conference could be used as a forum to criticize its ally Israel, a concern only likely to have increased after eight days of Israeli-Palestinian fighting that ended with a ceasefire last week.

SECURITY

Israel, which says say Tehran is the Middle East's main proliferation threat, had not said whether it would attend.

Iran and Arab states often say Israel's presumed nuclear arsenal poses a threat to Middle East peace and security.

The plan for a meeting to lay the groundwork for the possible creation of a Middle East free of weapons of mass destruction was agreed at a 2010 conference of 189 parties to the 1970 NPT, a treaty designed to prevent the spread of nuclear arms in the world.

Israel, which neither confirms nor denies having nuclear arms, is not a signatory.

U.S. and Israeli officials have said a nuclear arms-free zone in the Middle East could not be a reality until there was broad Arab-Israeli peace and Iran curbed its nuclear program, which Tehran says is for peaceful energy and research purposes.

Soltanieh, Iran's ambassador to the U.N. nuclear agency, said: "The U.S. has taken hostage this Helsinki conference for the sake of Israel ... they want to support the Israelis' nuclear weapon capability."

Russia and Britain signaled in separate statements at the weekend their hope for a delay to be as short as possible and that the talks could be held next year instead.

The U.S. State Department said it would keep working to try to bring about a meeting, adding such a gathering must take into account the security of all the states in the region and operate on the basis of consensus.

(Additional reporting by Steve Gutterman in Moscow; Editing by Alison Williams)

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