The dollar dropped to $1.2680 against the euro and the yen gained sharply to 112.40, though it recovered some ground in New York on strong manufacturing data.

Gold leapt to a 25-year high of $660.95 an ounce on fears the dollar decline could spiral out of control, disrupting the global financial system.

Fed chief Ben Bernanke set off the slide last week by talking of a possible "pause" in interest rate rises, citing worries about the risks of a "pronounced housing slowdown".

The comments followed Fed minutes revealing that some governors feared "the dangers of tightening too much". Rates have risen 15 times to 4.75 pc since June 2004.

The dollar slide and the Fed's apparent willingness to wink at higher inflation has roiled the bond markets, where yields on 10-year Treasuries have spiked to 5.13pc, the highest in four years.

David Bloom, a currency expert at HSBC, said the dollar was vulnerable to a steep sell-off as investors began to refocus on America's yawning current account deficit, now 7pc of GDP. The currency has been boosted for more than a year by rising US interest rates, but the yield advantage could soon slip away as Europe, Japan, and China play catch-up.

"Beware regime change. When it turns, it will be totally poisonous for the dollar because the US will have to start paying investors for the risk of financing their massive deficits," he said.

Smaller central banks are already taking precautionary steps. Sweden's Riksbank has slashed its dollar reserves from 37pc to 20pc over the past month, while the United Arab Emirates said it is planning to switch 10pc from dollars to euros.

The combined dollar reserves of China and Japan are so vast - perhaps $1,400bn, mostly in US bonds - that they cannot easily be sold without setting off a global panic. However, the Bank of Japan has stopped accumulating US treasuries now it no longer needs to hold down the yen to combat deflation.

The fall may be checked, however, by the inherent weakness of Europe's monetary union. The euro's strength in early 2005 set off mayhem in Italy, prompting two ministers to float ideas for a return to the lira, largely to bail out struggling exporters.

The European Central Bank is already softening its monetary policy to try to dampen enthusiasm for the euro, stunning the markets last month by shying away from an expected rate rise in May.

"If the euro gets to $1.30 against the dollar there will be another chorus of complaint from the weakest states," said a veteran EMU-watcher.

"If it gets above $1.40, Italy will be blown out of the euro-zone."

Employed mothers reported spending on average 44 hours a week at their outside job and 49.8 hours at their home job, while the stay-at-home mother worked 91.6 hours a week, it showed.

An estimated 5.6 million women in the United States are stay-at-home mothers with children under age 15, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau data.

NOT 'JUST A MOM'

"It's good to acknowledge the job that's being done, and that it's not that these women are settling for 'just a mom,"' said Bill Coleman, senior vice president of compensation at Salary.com. "They are actually doing an awful lot."

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, some 26 million women with children under age 18 work in the nation's paid labor force.

Both employed and stay-at-home mothers said the lowest-paying job of housekeeper was their most common role, with employed mothers working 7.2 hours a week as housekeeper and stay-at-home mothers working 22.1 hours in that role.

"Every husband I've ever spoken to said, 'I'm keeping my job. You keep yours.' It's a tough one," said Gillian Forrest, 39, a stay-at-home mother of 22-month-old Alex in New York. "I don't know if you could put a dollar amount on it but it would be nice to get something."

"The US and Qatar have not yet started formal talks on an FTA," US ambassador in Doha Chase Untermeyer said in a statement, three days after Qatar's envoy in Washington likened the negotiations to a "dialogue of the deaf."

Washington and Doha "have a strong and thriving trade relationship. US direct investment in Qatar is between 60-70 billion dollars and US exports to Qatar exceeded 900 million dollars in 2005," Untermeyer said.

The two sides "signed a bilateral Trade and Investment Framework Agreement (TIFA) in March of 2004. The TIFA provides a forum for bilateral discussions on trade and investment issues," he said.

Washington has signed such agreements with nine countries in the Middle East, the US diplomat said, adding: "In some cases, TIFA talks lead to a mutual decision to begin negotiating a Free Trade Agreement. However, the US and Qatar have not yet started formal talks on an FTA."

Untermeyer said that before proceeding with formal talks on an FTA with any country, "the US asks for information indicating that the laws of that country comply with international agreements in different areas, including labor and copyright protection.

"The US also seeks high-level commitments to open markets in investment, finance, telecommunications and other areas to US firms," he said.

He said Washington looked forward to "continuing to engage with Qatar through the US-Qatar TIFA."

In remarks published in the Ash-Sharq daily Saturday, Doha's ambassador in Washington Nasser Hamad al-Khalifa said talks on an FTA had stalled after turning into a "dialogue of the deaf."

"Advanced countries put a list of conditions to developing countries, and each time the latter strive to meet these terms and think they have done so, they (industrial states) take a new list of conditions out of their pocket," he said.

Qatar has close ties with the United States, which has two military bases -- Al-Udeid and As-Sayliyah -- in the tiny Gulf country.

Many US firms are involved in gas and oil ventures in Qatar.

Washington has signed FTAs with two Gulf countries -- Bahrain and Oman -- and is negotiating a similar deal with a third, the United Arab Emirates.

According to John Negroponte, Bush's Director of National Intelligence , the despicable Chavez is " spending considerable sums involving himself in the political and eceonomic life of other countries in Latin America and elsewhere, this despite the very real economic development and social needs in his own country."

Now this particular US pot has a massive underclass with huge social and economic needs ( remember who suffered from Hurricane Katrina) and yet cheerfully spends 1 billion dollars a week in Iraq.

Meanwhile the Venezualan kettle is setting a cracking pace in improving the lives of the poorest workers and farmers and has been banking $10 billion per year in a special fund to continue tackling the causes of poverty.

But, complains the New York Times on April 4th, echoing the chagrin of the Bush administration , this abomination of a President is using the oil wealth to influence other countries : With Venezuela's oil revenues rising 32 percent last year , Mr Chavez has been subsidising samba parades in Brazil, eye surgery for poor Mexicans and even heating fuel for poor families from Maine to the Bronx to Philadelphia. By some estimates , the spending now surpasses the nearly $ 2 billion Washington allocates to pay for development programmes and the drug war in western South America."


So while the US selfessly funds development programs and fights drug wars which just happen to provide the cash and weaponry to keep corrupt regimes in power, the abominable Chavez is winning supporters across Latin America by investing in social and health programmes and making sure that the samba parade on Brazil went off with an even bigger bang then usual. How dare he peddle influence, the preserve of the old imperialist powers let alone spread socialist ideas that another world is possible by using national resources for the common good at home and abroad.

But the New York Times in the April 4 article lets us into the real secret of why Chavez is such a dangerous fellow for throwing money at poverty rather than handing it over to multinational corporations.. Apparently he is intent on being " the next Fidel Castro, a hero to the masses who is intent on opposing every move the United States makes, but with an important advantage.

It was bad enough having that Fidel Castro and his communist government nationalise US corporations , kick out the Mafia and their gambling, prostitution and drug rackets and provide free heath care and education to all Cubans after the Revolution in 1959.

Now along comes this Hugo come lately with vastly greater wealth that used to flow North spreading his bad influence with all those newly elected leftist governments in Argentina, Brazil, Columbia, Ecuador, Paraguay and Uruguay.

And it is this influence that is sending the US ballistic about comrade Hugo.
New Zealand should look more closely at this challenge to the policies of the rich world. . For the countries of Latin America as a whole are demanding social and economic policies that are opposed to the measures that have allowed United States and European corporations to seize control of the internal markets of Latin America and deepen the dependence and poverty of the continent.

The Latin American countries , with Venezuela leading the charge , are developing their common market mechanism Mercosur to counter the US plan to expand the free trade area created by NAFTA.

What Venezuela has brought to Mercosur is an impetus to boosting the integration process between the economies where the member countries will co-operate on all levels - economic , political , social and cultural. Co-operative advantage under Venezuelan influence is edging out the neoliberal philosophy of comparative advantage.

And to make matters worse, from the perspective of Western corporations, Venezuela and Cuba are showing how it can be done to the benefit of their peoples and the peoples of the other Mercosur countries.

Venezuela has signed dozens of agreements with Cuba. Among them is a plan that uses Cuban expertise in healthcare to benefit the entire continent. This has included 600 new diagnosis centres for Venezuela, 600 dispensaries and 35 hi-tech centres to guarantee free healthcare for all Venezuelans who can also travel to Cuba for cataract operations and this scheme is being extended throughout Latin America.

Venezuela has opened branches of its national oil company in Cuba and many preferential trade tarfiffs have been put in place thus boosting employment in both countries.

The Venezuelan -Cuban axis condemned by Washington as an axis of evil is being
seen by Latin Americans as a beacon of hope. It is an example of genuine fair trade:
Each country provides what it is best placed to produce, in return for what it most needs, independent of global market prices.

The model is expanding. The Venezualan initiative Petro Caribe is a company created to provide energy resources to 11 Caribbean countries at a low price.

Venezuela is cooperating with Uruguay and Brazil to build oil refineries. The possibility of a single pan-South American oil company to benefit all is being discussed.

And the views on Latin America disseminated by the New York Times and other western media is under challenge by Telesur which is jointly owned by the governments of Venezuela, Uruguay, Cuba and Argentina. This television channel will provide news free of commercial interests and the influence of North American media.

Si senor , something is happening south of the border and New Zealand should be watching as this challenge to globalisation a la the neo liberal model grows stronger.
Perhaps it is time for Phil Goff to shake hands with Hugo Chavez rather than Donald Rumsfeld.

Matt Robson is a former New Zealand Cabinet Minister and MP. In the Labour-Alliance Government Mr Robson was the Associate Minister for Foreign Affairs