PARIS - WORLD leaders are bound to express the hope that the worst of the global economic crisis is passing when they meet this week, but they are now under pressure, too, to manage a Chinese challenge to US dollar supremacy.

Beijing, which has floated the idea of an alternative to the dollar as world reserve currency, wants the matter - sensitive in financial markets wary of risks to US asset values - broached at a three-day summit this week in Italy, officials say.

LONDON - THE downturn in global advertising is approaching its lowest point and, after a fall of 8.5 per cent in 2009, the industry should see a mild recovery in 2010, a leading media agency predicted on Monday.

ZenithOptimedia said it had revised down its forecast for 2009, from an earlier prediction of a 6.9 per cent drop, after the first quarter came in worse than expected.