Russia has campaigned for 12 years to join the WTO but the United States is still witholding its endorsement of Moscow's candidacy -- it is the only major economy that has not yet backed Russia's bid -- citing shortcomings in several key trade sectors.

Moscow wants to join the organisation both for the prestige of membership and as a means to spur diversification in its own economy, still focused heavily on raw materials export.

But US negotiators have repeatedly returned to the issue of the worldwide music sales of allofmp3.com -- protection of intellectual property being a major stumbling block in Russia's negotiations to join the club.

US Trade Representative Susan Schwab has placed allofmp3.com on a "notorious markets" list and in a speech last month she accused Russian authorities of allowing the website to operate with impunity.

The music site has a ready market outside Russia as well as at home, offering music tracks for as little as a third of a dollar and entire albums for two dollars, which compares with 99 US cents per track from iTunes.

The website's executives denied Tuesday that the site had refused to pay royalties for its world-wide music sales.

They said the company had paid royalties to a Russian music society, the Russian Organisation for Multimedia and digital Systems (ROMS), but the industry had refused to take such payments from the society.

"ROMS has offered to pay the record companies the royalties they collected but has been rebuffed.... As we see it, the record companies really have an issue with ROMS and perhaps the Russian government," they said.

They insisted the company would go from strength to strength, buoyed by the growth of the Internet, and that it was the record labels whose time was running out.

"They are concerned with making money for themselves not the artists. In our opinion, we and the artists are better off dealing directly with each other. In fact we believe it is the future of the music industry," they said.

The owner of the website, Denis Kvasov, has been battling a lawsuit in a Moscow court by the international music industry body IFPI.

In a bid to allay US concerns, Russia's parliament gave preliminary approval last month to a strict new law on intellectual property rights that Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev said would bring Russian in line with Western demands.

But more widely, Russia's negotiations to join the WTO have been hampered by Washington's increasingly tough stance towards Moscow on the issue of Iran's nuclear programme.

Russia is the only major world economy not in the World Trade Organisation.

In Tuesday's news conference the website's executives refused to reveal details of the company's finances.

The Kommersant daily estimated earlier the annual turn-over of allofmp3.com at between 25 million and 30 million dollars (20 million and 23 million euros).

User-generated sites have exploded in popularity in recent months by allowing users to share video clips online. Last week, Google confirmed the sector's appeal when it agreed to buy YouTube for $1.65bn.

Such sites have created a dilemma for established media companies. While they offer companies the promise of promoting their content to a vast new web audience, they also pose the risk of huge copyright violations.

Universal publicly threatened to sue YouTube before reversing and signing a partnership with the company last week to distribute its music videos. Universal was persuaded after YouTube agreed to pay a small licensing fee for the material and to share associated advertising revenues. It has also pledged to implement new systems to strengthen its copyright protections.

Google, Yahoo and Microsoft's MSN have reached similar deals with the record companies, and News Corp's MySpace is in negotiations. Universal also reserved the right to add Sony to the suit since it acquired Grouper in August for an estimated $65m. Sony and Bolt executives could not immediately comment on the suits' claims.

Josh Felser, co-founder and CEO of Grouper, said: "The lawsuit is without merit and we expect to prevail. Our website is protected by federal law and we're vigilant about taking down copyrighted content when we're properly notified."

Aaron Cohen, Bolt's chief executive, disputed the notion that the primary function of its website was to share professionally made videos, saying most of its content was created by users. Bolt, he added, had promptly responded to requests from companies to remove their materials from its site and still hoped to establish partnerships with them.

The MBA's index of home purchase applications edged higher, however, stabilizing after falling more than 100 points to 375.9 in the year through August. The component index of home purchases rose 0.4 percent to 384.7, while the gauge of loan refinancing slipped 5.3 percent to 1,758.2.

Some economists viewed the purchase index and other recent housing data as evidence the market's slide has subsided.

The U.S. Department of Commerce on Wednesday reported housing starts jumped 5.9 percent in September to a 1.772 million annualized pace, versus expectations in a Reuters survey for a drop to a 1.64 million rate. A drop in building permits clouded the future.

On Tuesday, the National Association of Home Builders said its sentiment index rose in October for the first month in nine.

"The housing market is showing signs of bottoming" after its slump from a record pace, said Richard Yamarone, chief economist at Argus Research in New York. That doesn't mean investors should be expecting a rebound, though, he said.

A three-week rise in interest rates has begun to choke off loan refinancing opportunities that had lifted the MBA's mortgage applications index to a nine-month peak of 633.9 in late September from 527.6 in July.

In the week ending October 13, long-term, 30-year fixed-rate mortgages averaged 6.33 percent, 0.15 percentage point above the September low of 6.18 percent that had helped push the rate of refinancings to its highest in almost a year, the MBA figures showed. Last week's rate rose 6 basis points from the preceding week.

Mr. Speyer and his partner, BlackRock Realty, outmaneuvered nearly a dozen other bidders, including a group aligned with the tenants at the complexes who hoped to preserve them as relatively affordable middle-class housing, a rapidly disappearing commodity in Manhattan. As housing costs have skyrocketed in the city in recent years, the pending sale of the complexes and the larger issue of affordable housing became a cause célèbre among New York politicians and tenant activists.

But Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg stayed on the sidelines, and MetLife was intent on selling for the highest possible price. The tenant group's offer of $4.5 billion lagged behind bids from some of the biggest names in real estate, including Apollo Real Estate Advisors with the Dermot Company, Related Companies with Lehman Brothers, the Millstein brothers, and Vornado Realty Trust.

"Peter Cooper Village/Stuyvesant Town is an extraordinary asset and we are very pleased with the market reaction we received to this sale," said Robert Merck, who oversees Met Life's real estate investments. "Tishman Speyer and BlackRock were illustrative of the outstanding caliber and reputation of the bid group and we are confident that they will be fine stewards of the property in the years to come."

Mr. Merck said the sale would be completed before the end of the year.

Tishman Speyer called tenant leaders to let them know that a deal was done and to say that residents of rent-stabilized apartments are completely protected by the existing system.

"No one should be concerned about a sudden or dramatic shift in this neighborhood's make-up, character or charm," Mr. Speyer, the president and chief executive of Tishman Speyer, said in a statement.

"As a business with deep roots in New York City, we have a sincere appreciation for these cherished neighborhoods, and we are honored to become stewards of the property," he said.

Daniel R. Garodnick, a city councilman who lives in Peter Cooper Village and helped organize the tenant offer, expressed disappointment in the outcome. Nearly three quarters of the 11,232 apartments have regulated rents that are roughly half the market rents, and tenants fear that a new owner will bring sweeping changes.

"We want to know how the new owner intends to preserve the long-term affordability of Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village," Mr. Garodnick said. "We expect a new owner to not only to honor his obligations under the law, but to come up with a plan that preserves the long-term affordability of this middle-class community."

Most of the 11,232 apartments in the complexes are now subject to rent regulation. When MetLife announced earlier this year that it was putting the two complexes up for sale, it bridled at suggestions that the company had any continuing obligation to provide below-market housing. Real estate companies leaped at the prospect.

Company executives have suggested to city officials and reporters that many of the 25,000 residents of Peter Cooper Village and Stuyvesant Town made too much money to qualify for any kind of assistance.

In recent years, MetLife has ousted illegal sublettors and tenants whose apartments were not their primary residences. Under city regulations, an apartment can cease to be rent-controlled or rent-stabilized when it becomes vacant, or when the rent reaches $2,000 a month and the existing tenant's household income rises above $175,000 for two successive years. As a result, about 27 percent of the apartments in the complexes are now leased at market rates. An additional 1,600 units will be freed of rent regulation over the next two years, according to sale documents.

But tenant advocates have said that the city cannot afford to lose its middle class, which is coming under increasing pressure from high prices and rents, especially in Manhattan.

But Yahoo Chairman Terry Semel offered hope for a turnaround next year by acknowledging the company's recent difficulties and vowing to fix them with a "back to basics" approach. The promise helped lift Yahoo's sagging stock price, which surged by nearly 5 percent in extended trading.

"I am not satisfied with our current financial performance, and we intend to improve it," Semel told analysts during a conference call Tuesday. "We are not exploiting our considerable strengths as well as we should be."

The Sunnyvale-based company said Tuesday that it earned $158.5 million, or 11 cents per share, for the three months ended in September. That compared with net income of $253.8 million, or 17 cents per share, in the same period last year.

The quarters weren't totally comparable because of new accounting rules requiring Yahoo to deduct the cost of employee stock options from this year's profit.

Still, the results matched analyst expectations, according to Thomson Financial.

Revenue for this year's quarter totaled $1.58 billion, a 19 percent increase from $1.33 billion last year.

After subtracting commissions Yahoo paid its advertising partners, third-quarter revenue totaled $1.12 billion, slightly below analyst expectations that had been lowered by Yahoo management a month ago.

Yahoo didn't give investors any reason to feel better about the fourth quarter, traditionally the company's most lucrative because the holiday shopping season encourages more advertising.

Excluding ad commissions, Yahoo forecast its fourth-quarter revenue will range from $1.15 billion to $1.27 billion. The average analyst estimate had been $1.30 billion, according to Thomson Financial.

Wall Street has been frustrated with Yahoo for most of this year, largely because the company hasn't been targeting online ads as effectively as Google Inc. (GOOG), the Internet search leader that runs the Web's largest marketing network.

Although Yahoo continues to run the most trafficked Web site on the Internet, the company faces stiff challenge from recent upstarts like News Corp. (NWSA)'s MySpace.com, Facebook.com and YouTube.com, which Google is buying for $1.65 billion.

The problems have battered Yahoo's stock price, which has dropped by 38 percent this year. Yahoo shares dipped 3 cents Tuesday to close at $24.15 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, then gained $1.14, or 4.7 percent, to $25.29 in extended trading.

Asked whether the invasion of Iraq and its aftermath had led to Britain and the US taking their eye off the ball, Brig Butler said the question was "probably best answered by politicians".

But echoing criticisms last week by General Sir Richard Dannatt, the head of the army, he added that Iraq had affected operations in Afghanistan. "We could have carried on in 2002 in the same way we have gone about business now.

"Have the interim four years made a difference? I think realistically they have," Brig Butler told journalists in London. Since then, he added, Britain had "marked time" and British troops were now "starting to make up for that time".

He said later it would be inappropriate to associate Iraq with Afghanistan; they were different problems.

Gen Dannatt last week questioned the decision to invade Iraq, saying the military campaign in 2003 "effectively kicked the door in" and that British troops should leave "sometime soon" - by which he made it clear he meant within two years.

Brig Butler said yesterday that British forces could also have attacked the Taliban more effectively and more quickly if they had had more resources, including helicopters, though he added that British commanders had to face "realities".

There are more than 5,000 British troops in southern Afghanistan and more than 7,000 in southern Iraq. Though British military chiefs say publicly that they could sustain that number for the time being, they make it clear they cannot do so for much longer.

Pressed on the issue yesterday, the prime minister insisted British forces would not "walk away" from either country, and again insisted that he was not at odds with Gen Dannatt. "If we walk away before the job is done from either of those two countries, we will leave a situation in which the very people we are fighting everywhere, including the extremism in our own country, are heartened and emboldened and we can't afford that to happen."

Brig Butler also gave fresh insight into the strain that fighting in two different theatres was creating for the army. He disclosed that at times in southern Afghanistan his men had been down to "belt rations" - water and basic supplies which normally last no more than two days. "It got pretty close. We never actually ran out but that was the nature of the conflict," he said. He added that they were never in danger of being overrun by Taliban forces though on occasion it "got pretty close".

Brig Butler said he believed that they had "tactically defeated" the Taliban. However, he warned they could regroup over the winter; it was now essential to press ahead with reconstruction projects to convince the local population that the Nato operation was worth supporting.

"If we take our eye off the ball and we don't continue to invest in it, there is a danger they [the Taliban] will come back in greater numbers next year," he said.

He said the ferocity of the fighting over the summer had taken some of his troops by surprise. "I think we might have been surprised on occasion how persistent the attacks were and how enduring the scale of the operation was," Brig Butler said.

He said it was "very clear" that the campaign to secure Afghanistan would be a long one. "I suspect there will be some elements of the international community there in 20 years' time," he said, referring mainly to aid agencies.

It was disclosed yesterday that British troops had pulled out of the Musa Qala district in the northern part of Helmand province under a deal with local tribal elders. Brig Butler insisted he had not been involved in any negotiations with the Taliban and expressed confidence that the agreement would hold. "I think it is a positive sign that they are delivering their own security," he said.

According to the report, the Pentagon on Sept. 28 notified the Congress of the planned sale, worth up to 2.9 billion U.S. dollars, and no congressional objection has been raised within the formal waiting period of two weeks.

This means that all U.S. agencies have confirmed the sale and that the rest depends on negotiations between related defense agencies and companies from the two allies, a process that should lead to the signing of a contract, said the newspaper. Meanwhile, Turkish Anatolia news agency reported on Wednesday that Turkey and the United States plan to prepare and sign the contract that would cover the details of the project.

The "Block 50" version of F-16s is known as one of the latest models of warplanes in the world, it added.

The F-16s are manufactured by Lockheed Martin, one of the leading defence companies. Turkish defence industry is also envisaged to contribute to the manufacture of aircrafts of Turkish Air Forces.

Xiamen University in the southeastern city of Xiamen joins a growing number of Chinese schools offering golf lessons, but is unusual in making them a required class. Golf classes start in two months and also will be required for economics and computer software majors, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing university president Zhu Chongshi.

"The aim is to help the students find good jobs," a sports professor at the school, Chen Xiao, was quoted as saying. "Many Chinese business deals are clinched on golf courses."

Elite Peking University set off a debate over whether golf is appropriate for China, where most people still live in poverty, when it announced in August that it was building a practice green.

Some students complained the sport was too elitist but supporters defended it as a healthy social activity.