The world economy needs to balance austerity with growth if it is to recover fully from the global financial crisis, a key IMF committee said in Tokyo on Saturday.

"Fiscal policy should be appropriately calibrated to be as growth-friendly as possible," the International Monetary and Financial Committee said in a communique.

China said Saturday the failure by Washington and Tokyo to fix their fiscal problems was hurting the global economy, as it called for "bold, swift and decisive action" to reverse a slowdown.

Deputy central bank governor Yi Gang warned the absence of a "credible, medium-term fiscal consolidation in some of the major advanced economies such as the United States and Japan" is unsettling for the world economy.

The IMF and World Bank on Saturday raised the alarm on the "humanitarian emergency" in West Africa's Sahel region, where millions risk starvation amid regional insecurity, drought and poor harvests.

"We are troubled by the acute humanitarian emergency in the Sahel region where hunger threatens the lives of 19 million people and the stability of the region," said a statement from the organizations' joint development committee.

Iraq will buy 28 Czech-made L-159 training jets valued at $1 billion dollars (770 billion euros), Czech Defense Minister Alexandr Vondra said in Prague on Friday.

"We've agreed to supply 28, L-159-type two-seat aircraft to the Iraqi air force," Vondra told reporters on the last of a two-day visit to the Czech capital by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Moody's on Friday downgraded Japanese electronics titan Sony, citing the company's "weak profitability and cash flow".

The agency lowered its assessment on debt issued by Sony from Baa1 to Baa2, citing "its challenges in achieving profitability in the TV and mobile phone segments, and the erosion in its global competitive position across different product lines".

There are now 30 million more people without jobs around the world than before the global financial crisis began, the head of the International Labor Organization said in remarks published Friday.

The figures come amid a growing debate over the merits of austerity, especially in Europe, where painful budget-cutting has pushed jobless levels as high as 25 percent in some countries, including debt-hit Greece and Spain.

Public debt in developed countries standing at "wartime levels" is the biggest threat to the global economy, IMF chief Christine Lagarde warned in Tokyo on Friday.

The International Monetary Fund's managing director said the creaking debt loads were leaving governments at the mercy of the markets and needed to be reduced.

Beverage tycoon Zong Qinghou regained his position as China's richest man this year, Forbes magazine said Friday, but the global economic slump took its toll on other billionaires.

Zong, who heads soft-drink producer Wahaha, has a fortune of $10 billion, according to the magazine's influential annual ranking of China's 400 richest people, helping him win back the position he lost last year.

U.S. stocks headed higher early Thursday buoyed by a sharp fall in weekly claims for unemployment, which hit their lowest level in four and a half years.

Opening action focused on Sprint Nextel, whose shares immediately soared 17 percent on a report that Japan's Softbank was planning a bid for the number three U.S. wireless carrier.

Japanese telecom firm Softbank is mulling a monster deal that would see it buy a majority stake in U.S.-based Sprint Nextel for as much as $23 billion, reports said Thursday.

Japan's leading Nikkei business daily said Softbank, the country's third-biggest mobile carrier, could launch a bid worth over 1.8 trillion yen ($23 billion), without citing sources.