Bush calls for halt to Israeli offensive - papers 5 April

The FT leads with a report that President George W. Bush on Thursday called on Israel to halt attacks on Palestinian-controlled areas of the West Bank and to begin to withdraw from the cities it has occupied.

The FT also writes that the US Defense Department wants all large foreign acquisitions of American companies to be approved by a secretive national security committee, a move designed to restrict access to sensitive US technology.

An unexpected rise in new requests for US unemployment benefits on Thursday added to other less than encouraging economic data earlier in the week, notes the FT. But observers discounted the new figures as an unexpected bureaucratic distortion at the US labour department.

The Times writes that the Bank of England kept interest rates pegged at a 38-year low for the fifth month running yesterday, despite further signs of burgeoning recovery in the economy.

Another fat cat row threatened to beset corporate Britain last night after it emerged that senior executives from two of the country's best-known companies took millions of pounds in pay rises and bonuses while thousands of their workers were sacked or suffered a year-long pay freeze reports the Times.

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