The Financial Times reported on Monday the French company had hired bankers to look at a listing of its commodities trading arm, or a partial sale to a sovereign wealth fund.”Taking into account the state of the (stock) market, there is only little chance that we see a transaction in the short term,” the source close to the company said.”A private investor is less unlikely that an IPO,” he added.

“We are prepared to examine any issue, even if fabricated, seriously and patiently, and we have called on America to submit to us any information in regard to this scenario,” Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi was quoted as saying by the official IRNA news agency.U.S. authorities said last week they had foiled a plot to kill Saudi’s ambassador to Washington, Adel al-Jubeir, and had arrested an Iranian-U.S. joint national — news that raised tensions between Tehran, its Arab neighbors and the West.President Barack Obama said the foiled plot should lead to tighter sanctions against Iran — already under several rounds of U.N. sanctions over its nuclear program — and repeated that all options are on the table to deal with the Islamic republic, a tacit threat of possible military action.U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said on Monday he had passed correspondence about the U.S. suspicions of Iran’s involvement in the alleged plot to the U.N. Security Council.Tehran says Washington fabricated the plot to divert attention from its own economic problems and increase pressure on Iran, which it has long considered a supporter of “terrorist” groups with nuclear weapons ambitions.Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned the West Iran will counter any “inappropriate measure” taken against it and said he had no fear of military or sanctions threats.”Despite the high military, security, propaganda and sanctions pressure, the Islamic Republic is proud not to back down even an iota during the past 32 years,” he said in a televised speech during a tour of Kermanshah province.”The Iranian nation and its officials will not yield to the enemies’ blackmailing and pressure.”NUCLEAR ADVANCESThe plot furor appears to have killed any chance of a rapid return to talks between Tehran and world powers concerned about its nuclear program, but Salehi said Iran continued to make strides in the technology it says is for purely peaceful ends.Salehi conceded Iran had initially feared the assassination of a nuclear scientist in Tehran last November — which it blamed on Israel — had dealt a severe blow to a key part of its atomic work.”When (Majid) Shahriyari was martyred we were worried because he was the only person who knew about this professional field (enriching uranium to 20 percent purity),” he said.”But after our trip to (the nuclear plant in the city of) Isfahan, I understood that the graceful martyr had trained about 20 people in his workshops. Right now we have several thousand nuclear engineers and there is almost nothing in the nuclear issue that we want to achieve but cannot.”Iran’s announcement last year that it had escalated uranium enrichment from the low level needed for electricity production to 20 percent, alarmed many countries that feared it was a key step toward making material potent enough for a nuclear bomb.Tehran says the fuel is needed to make isotopes for cancer treatment and previous nuclear talks focused on a deal to deliver ready-made fuel for its medical reactor in exchange for some of Iran’s stock of low-enriched uranium.Salehi said in January — ahead of the last round of nuclear talks that then stalled — that such a fuel swap deal was becoming less relevant as Iran would be able to produce its own fuel plates for the reactor in the first half of the Iranian year, which began in March.With that deadline already passed, Salehi said on Monday Iran would be producing the medical reactor fuel within the next four to five months. He said Iran had produced almost 70 kg (150 lb) of 20 percent enriched uranium, up from an estimated 40 kg in January.

The House of Representatives and Senate are expected to back the deals in a series of votes later on Wednesday.Supporters hope the action marks an end to a long U.S. drought on deals to open trade. Each pact had been stuck at the White House for at least four years.”We will send a strong signal to the world that America is back on the trade field,” said Representative Kevin Brady, a Texas Republican, at a rally with business groups.U.S. farm and manufactured goods exports are expected to rise under all three agreements as tariffs are phased out. The agreements also open new markets for U.S. companies in service sectors such as banking, insurance and express delivery.Critics say the pacts will harm U.S. employment, but the Obama administration and other proponents think the pacts will support tens of thousands jobs.The biggest gains are expected from the pact with South Korea, a longtime ally and a $1 trillion economy in a region increasingly dominated by China. The agreement will help anchor the United States in the fast-growing Asia Pacific region so it can share in its growth, analysts say.The House and Senate action comes just a day before South Korean President Lee Myung-bak speaks to a joint session of the U.S. Congress, a visit that has given lawmakers an added impetus to move the deals.President Barack Obama sent the three agreements to Capital Hill just nine days ago, four to five years after they were negotiated. The deals had foundered primarily on Democratic Party concerns over labor practices abroad and the potential for increased competition to cost U.S. jobs.OPPORTUNITIES LOSTWhile U.S. farmers and big agricultural exporters are excited about new sales opportunities for beef, pork, poultry, corn, wheat, soybeans and other food products in the three markets, they lament the long delay as a lost opportunity as other countries nailed down bilateral deals.”We can’t underestimate how much U.S. agriculture has lost out,” while the current pacts were stalled, said Devry Boughner, director of international business relations for the food, agriculture and risk management giant Cargill.”Corn, soybeans and wheat exports from the U.S. have gone from a 78 percent market share in the Colombian market to 28 percent, owing in part to the fact that Canada got to Colombia first,” Boughner said.The White House is negotiating a regional trade agreement known as the Transpacific Partnership pact with eight other countries in the Asia-Pacific region, but any congressional action on that deal might be delayed until after the 2012 election even if it is concluded next year.The Obama administration also has been unable to conclude the Doha round of world trade talks, which will soon enter their 11th year, and has begun no new bilateral trade negotiations during its nearly three years in office.KOREA PACT LARGEST SINCE NAFTAThe deal between the United States and South Korea, the world’s largest and 14th largest economies, respectively, would be the biggest U.S. trade deal since the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into force in January 1994.In a study in 2007, the U.S. International Trade Commission estimated the pact would lift U.S. imports from Korea by $6.4 billion to $6.9 billion a year, with gains in areas such as clothing, leather goods, footwear, electronics and cars.A study by the labor-backed Economic Policy Institute estimates the Korea deal will cost about 159,000 jobs over seven years; the White House says that it will help create or maintain more than 70,000 and congressional Republicans estimate as many as 250,000 new jobs.All three agreements were negotiated and signed during the administration of former President George W. Bush, who was unable to win their approval from the Democratic-controlled Congress before leaving office in 2009.The oldest and most controversial pact, the one with Colombia, was signed in November 2006 and the other two accords in mid-2007. Since then, other countries have negotiated scores of new trade agreements around the world.Two rival deals between the European Union and South Korea and between Canada and Colombia were negotiated, signed and implemented during the period when the U.S. trade pacts were stuck at the White House.A broad coalition of farm, manufactured and services industry groups have pushed ceaselessly for the agreements, and found a more favorable environment after the 2010 elections when Republican regained control of the House.Ted Austell, a vice president at Boeing, said the aircraft manufacturer expects to benefit both directly and indirectly from the free trade agreements.”When commerce increases, downstream that turns into aircraft orders. More movement of people and certainly of goods opens up more opportunity to sell aircraft,” Austell said.Support for the Colombia pact has been the weakest of the three because many Democrats believe Colombia needs to do more to stop killings of trade unionists and prosecute those responsible.The White House has pledged the agreement with Colombia will not go into force until Bogota “has successfully implemented key elements” of an action plan to address the violence.

But whether Li can become a media tycoon like Rupert Murdoch remains unclear given the financial constraints of PCCW, stiff competition in the media industry and regulations in Hong Kong and China that could tie his hands, analysts and bankers say.Li, the younger son of Hong Kong tycoon Li Ka-shing, is expected to expand his television business in Hong Kong and China in what’s left of PCCW, which consists of pay-TV operator now TV, an information technology solutions business and some property assets.”As the market stabilizes, we will go full steam ahead with the spinoff and listing plans that will benefit our shareholders,” Li said during a shareholders’ meeting on Wednesday.”For ‘now TV’, we are trying to enhance our production capabilities because we would like to pursue developments in overseas markets.”He will be keen to delve into media-related business in China and expand the company’s Hong Kong footprint after PCCW obtains a free-to-air TV license, which will help boost its TV advertising revenue, analysts and bankers say.”Richard Li has always been more interested in media than the telecoms business,” said a banker in Hong Kong.”In his mind, it’s a valuable business, but whether the public will look at it the same way will depend on how much cash he can generate for the business.” The banker declined to be identified because he is not authorized to talk to the media.TOUGH TARGETThere is no guarantee PCCW will launch the spinoff in the near future.It has said it will not move ahead with the plan unless it can raise HK$6.8 billion to HK$10 billion, and fetch a minimum market capitalization of HK$28.6 billion ($3.68 billion) for the trust.PCCW will retain control of the trust by keeping an interest of 55-70 percent.Analysts say the market capitalization target set for the trust seems challenging under current market conditions.”What I think is a problem is the market cap restriction, because the current share price of PCCW alone would indicate that it’s not going to happen,” Macquarie analyst Lisa Soh said.PCCW shares ended down 0.34 percent on Wednesday, taking the company’s market value to HK$21 billion, substantially lower than the projected market value of its telecoms asset. That means PCCW will likely wait before launching the trust spinoff.PCCW has said that if it managed to raise more than HK$7.8 billion, it would use the proceeds to expand its business, apart from paying down the telecoms unit’s mountain of debt of more than HK$36 billion.”Li’s focus will be on mainland China because he already has invested in PPstream, so I think Li is looking at the Hong Kong and China markets,” said Daiwa Capital Markets analyst Alan Kam. PPstream is China’s largest video online operator.PATCHY RECORDLi first ventured into the media business in the 1990s and made a huge splash in one of his early deals.The crew-cut, bespectacled executive started the satellite network Star TV in the mid-1980s which he sold to media mogul Murdoch for $950 million in 1995, just before turning 30. He used the money to set up a company that eventually became PCCW.In 2010, Li joined hands with China’s influential Caijing magazine to launch a newswire service called Cai Business Indepth (CBID). But that flopped within months of launching due to poor market response and high operating costs.In 2000, Li beat Singapore Telecommunications Ltd (STEL.SI) in a deal to buy Cable & Wireless HKT for more than $30 billion, aiming to create a telecoms powerhouse.However, the highly-leveraged deal proved too big for Li with the telecoms unit, leading to the decision to spin off and list the unit in the form of trust.The telecoms business generates steady cash flow but its growth potential is limited as the market is matured.In Hong Kong, Li owns the Chinese-language Hong Kong Economic Journal and English website www.ejinsight.com, although he will probably be unable to inject the assets into PCCW due to local media regulations. Therefore TV will be Li’s focus.PCCW is among the few TV operators that have already applied for a license to provide free-to-air television services in Hong Kong, which will challenge the dominance of Television Broadcasts Ltd (TVB) (0511.HK).”Now TV is still very small and the free TV market is about HK$4 billion in terms of advertising revenue, and it’s dominated by TVB,” said Standard Chartered analyst Steven Liu.”If three more operators get licenses, competition will be fierce.”There could be more acquisitions in store, although Li will have to make a good sales pitch to convince PCCW shareholders, such as China Unicom (Hong Kong) Ltd (0762.HK).In 2006, China Netcom, now owned by China Unicom, objected to Li’s plan to sell PCCW’s core assets to U.S. buyout firm TPG and Australia’s Macquarie Group Ltd. (MQG.AX).($1 = 7.782 Hong Kong dollars)