French President Nicolas Sarkozy to press China's Hu Jintao on sanctions for Iran

PARIS - French President Nicolas Sarkozy is heading to Beijing Wednesday with hopes of getting Chinese backing for further sanctions against Iran — but President Hu Jintao may have different ideas.

The leaders, whose countries hold two of the five permanent U.N. Security Council seats, are due to discuss Iran, among other issues, at the start of Sarkozy's three-day state visit to China.

Three permanent council members — France, Britain and the U.S. — have been pressing for a fourth round of U.N. penalties on Iran for its refusal to halt a key part of its nuclear program that could be used to make weapons. Iran says it only wants the technology for producing nuclear power.

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EU keeps eye on US financial regulation bill

LONDON—The European Union is hoping the financial overhaul moving through Congress will converge with EU calls for more regulation to fix the failures that led to the 2008 banking and credit crisis.

The U.S. overhaul is being welcomed by EU leaders from French President Nicolas Sarkozy to British Prime Gordon Brown, who have long argued for the need to reign in the financial system -- but trans-Atlantic accord starts to falter however when leaders move from broad goal-setting to implementation and details.

In particular, European officials are skeptical of proposals to ban banks from risky trading on their own behalf. They fear it would handicap global European financial players such as Deutsche Bank AG and France's BNP Paribas SA.

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