BANGKOK - TROUBLED carmaker General Motors Corp has suspended construction of its US$445-million (S$672-million) diesel-engine facility in Thailand due to the global financial crisis, the Nation newspaper reported on Saturday.

Work on the site in Rayong, 150km (90 miles) southeast of Bangkok, was put on hold for one year, said Steve Carlisle, president of General Motors in Southeast Asia.

WASHINGTON - THE World Bank on Saturday urged industrialised nations to maintain aid flows to developing nations to offset an expected decline in private capital flows to emerging markets due to the credit crisis.

'Over the past year, many developing countries have already had to cope with high food and fuel prices, and are now faced with a third problem of unprecedented proportions,' said Justin Lin, the World Bank chief economist and head of delegation in a speech prepared for the United Nations International Conference on Financing for Development in Doha.

CANBERRA - AUSTRALIAN Prime Minister Kevin Rudd agreed to hand state governments more than AU$15 billion Australian dollars (S$14.8 billion) on Saturday to protect the economy from the global financial downturn.

The annual package from the federal government for health, education and other spending was larger than the AU$11 billion states had been seeking.