Jean-Francois Cope, parliamentary leader of the governing UMP party, was quoted as saying the tax “would be Europe-wide or not (exist) at all”.

Prime Minister Francois Fillon told parliament that the government should focus on policies that increased France’s economic competitiveness.

France had been rethinking the tax after a court rejected it last year.

The Constitutional Council said there were too many exemptions for polluters in the tax plan, and that a minority of consumers would bear the burden.

But President Nicolas Sarkozy’s government had still been planning to push through a revised version of the measure later this year.

Had the plan been approved, France would have been the largest country to impose a carbon tax as part of efforts to tackle climate change.

“We have to amplify measures that help reinforce the competitiveness of our economy,” Mr Fillon was quoted as saying by Reuters news agency.

He said keeping the yuan stable was “an important contribution” to global recovery from the economic downturn. He was speaking at the end of China’s annual parliamentary session.

Mr Wen also said that recent strains in ties with the US were Washington’s fault, citing arms sales to Taiwan and a White House visit by the Dalai Lama.

Speaking to reporters in Beijing, Mr Wen denied China’s currency, the yuan, also known as the renminbi, was undervalued.

US legislators and trade groups say the yuan is kept up to 40% below what its value should be against the US dollar. “I don’t think the renminbi is undervalued,” Mr Wen said at Sunday’s news conference in the Great Hall of the People.

“We oppose all countries engaging in mutual finger-pointing or taking strong measures to force other nations to appreciate their currencies.”

Japan’s currency declined against all of its 16 most-active counterparts after costs to borrow in the currency fell in London and Nikkei English News said the central bank is likely to discuss more monetary easing measures at its next meeting. The South Korean won led Asian currencies higher as Asian stocks advanced on optimism a U.S. employment report today will show less job losses than economists forecast.

“Given the fact that the BOJ is already running far behind other central banks in exit strategies and prospects that interest rates here will remain low, the yen-carry trade may become popular again,” said Soichiro Mori, a Tokyo-based strategist at FXOnline Japan Co., a margin-trading company.

The yen fell to 89.27 per dollar as of 2:48 p.m. in Tokyo from 89.02 in New York yesterday, heading for a 0.3 percent loss this week. Japan’s currency dropped to 121.34 versus the euro from 120.91. The dollar traded at $1.3592 per euro from $1.3581. The won climbed 0.4 percent to 1,141.20 against the dollar.

The four-year deal, due to begin in July, will see Emirates become Serie A team AC Milan’s shirt sponsor in place of the Austrian betting company BWin.

Emirates already sponsors several football teams including Paris Saint Germain, Hamburg and Arsenal.

The airline has a pre-existing sponsorship deal with AC Milan that does not include shirt sponsorship.

Speaking to reporters on Friday, AC Milan’s vice president Adriano Galliani said the £52m deal could eventually be worth even more to the club if results on the field go its way.

Milan also has a sponsorship deal with German sports kit maker Adidas until June 2017.

Analysts had expected the central bank to increase reserve levels again, but were surprised it ordered a second increase so soon after January’s move. The bank has told commercial lenders to hike their reserve levels by 0.5%, to 16.5%, by 25 February.

China’s economy grew 10.7% in the final quarter of 2009 against a year earlier. For the whole of last year, it expanded by 8.7%.

“The central bank is sending out clear messages to banks that it wants more reasonable bank lending and it is paying close attention to inflation,” said Xie Xuecheng at Southwest Securities in Beijing.

Figures published by the central bank on Thursday showed that last month’s increase in reserves held by banks did little to rein in lending.

Lending by Chinese banks hit 1.4 trillion yuan ($205bn; £131bn) in January, one of the highest monthly totals on record.

This is the equivalent of an annualized increase of 4.6%. However, despite the growth in October to December, the economy contracted by 5% over the whole of 2009.

China now rivals Japan for the rank of the world’s second-biggest economy, and is on course to overtake Japan. China’s economy expanded by 8.7% in 2009.

“The Japanese population has become quite sober about themselves and relatively pessimistic about the country’s outlook,” said Takuji Okubo, chief economist at Societe Generale in Tokyo.

Japan’s return to growth has been led by exports, particularly to China, which is now its largest overseas market.

For the final three months of last year, the company made $868m, a dramatic improvement on the $6bn loss it made a year earlier.

Ford said its return to profitability was in part due to cutting costs and reducing debt levels.

Ford employed 89,000 people in the US at the start of 2009, but that number dropped to about 80,000 through buyouts and layoffs by the end of the year.

It had been reported that the rate hit 10% in November, but this has subsequently been revised down to 9.9%. Some 15.8 million people are now out of work in the eurozone, according to Eurostat.

Across all 27 countries that make up the EU, there are now 23 million people unemployed. Latvia has the highest jobless rate in the EU at 22.8%.

Spain continues to have the highest rate in the eurozone – rising to 19.5% in December, up from 19.4% in November.

It is currently at 12.7% of GDP – four times the European Union’s limit of 3% – while Greece’s debts amount to 113% of GDP.

The state of Greece’s public finances has come under intense scrutiny from the EU in recent weeks.

This week it expressed concern over the financial data being supplied by the Greek government.

On Thursday, the president of the European Central Bank was forced to dismiss as “absurd” speculation that Greece would be forced out of the eurozone because of its budget problems.

The ACCC alleges Prime Carbon made false or misleading representations including that carbon credits listed on the National Environment Registry were supervised by the Australian Government.

The ACCC also alleges Prime Carbon’s director Ken Bellamy was either concerned in, or a party to, some of the company’s contravening conduct.