Jordan's Arab Potash Company (APC), one of the world's largest potash producers, is in talks with an Israeli firm to buy gas to power its plants and reduce production costs, the government said on Monday.

"The APC is in contact with its Israeli counterpart through the American oil and gas firm Noble Energy to examine the possibility of importing gas," the ministry of energy said in a statement.

Germany, Europe's biggest economy, will avoid the recession that has engulfed many of its partners in the region and return to growth in the first quarter of 2013, the Bundesbank said on Monday.

"As it currently looks, a plus in economic output can be expected in the first quarter of this year," the German central bank said in its February monthly report.

The eurozone's current account surplus narrowed to 13.9 billion euros ($18.5 billion) in December from 15.9 billion euros in November, European Central Bank data showed on Monday.

The current account on the balance of payments, which includes imports and exports in both goods and services plus all other current transfers, is a closely tracked indicator of the ability of a country or area to pay its way in the world.

Tyre maker Bridgestone said Monday its net profit last year soared 67 percent to $1.83 billion as it cemented a recovery from a year earlier when the quake-tsunami hammered Japan's manufacturers.

Bridgestone said it earned 171.61 billion yen in the year to December as sales rose 1.0 percent to 3.04 trillion yen, with the bottom line partly boosted by higher tyre prices.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe ramped up pressure on the central bank Monday, signalling he may rein in the institution's independence if it fails to achieve an ambitious inflation target.

Abe -- who swept to power in a landslide election win in December -- warned that failure by the Bank of Japan to meet the two-percent target could open the door to "revising the BoJ law".

Sharjah-based budget carrier Air Arabia said Saturday its 2012 net profit soared 55 percent on an annual basis to $115.8 million, as it expanded its network and passenger numbers rose.

Revenues for the Middle East's first and largest low-cost airline stood at 2.9 billion dirhams ($790 million), an increase of 21 percent compared with 2011, it said in a statement.

The finance ministers of Britain, France and Germany on Saturday launched a new drive to force big business to pay its fair share of tax and halt the schemes of top firms to keep payments to a minimum.

Britain's George Osborne, France's Pierre Moscovici and Germany's Wolfgang Schaeuble said it was time for internationally-coordinated action to clamp down on the practice of shifting profits from the company's home country to pay less tax under another jurisdiction.

Experts from the European Union, European Central Bank and International Monetary Fund are studying the consequences if Cyprus does not receive a bailout, a German newspaper reported on Saturday.

"Experts from the troika are calculating, especially under pressure from Berlin, the financial consequences of a Cyprus bankruptcy," Bild, the most widely read daily in Europe, said without citing a source.

U.S. markets butted against a stubborn ceiling for another week, ending up Friday where they were a week earlier after five days of jerky but finally inconclusive trade.

The S&P 500 could claim a seventh straight weekly gain -- by adding just 0.1 percent -- but that just underscored the stall of the bull run since December.

G20 finance ministers on Saturday moved to calm fears of looming "economic warfare" on the currency markets, pledging they would not target specific forex rates or devalue currencies to make them more competitive.

The jitters -- similar to previous disputes with China -- have been set off by Japan's plan of monetary easing to boost inflation and activity by reducing the value of the yen under new Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.