Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, Mexico’s President Felipe Calderon and US President Barack Obama agreed to combine their efforts to fight swine flu, which they expect to affect their people once again in the Northern Hemisphere winter.

They also addressed the issue of drug cartels that have been responsible for a number of murders, with all three countries pledging extra resources to combat the gangs.

However Obama and Calderon were unable to overcome a trucking dispute where the US have cancelled a program allowing Mexican trucks in the country, which saw Mexico hit back with $2.4 billion in tariffs on US goods, both breaching the terms of the North American Free Trade Agreement.

The three leaders also agreed to develop a joint position on climate change and cutting greenhouse gas emissions to take to the United Nations Copenhagen summit in December.

Bilateral trade passed $2 billion last year and the two ministers identified areas where the two economies could work together, including taking advantage of the respective proximity to the Asia-Pacific and North American markets.

They also confirmed their commitment to holding a Joint Trade and Investment Commission meeting soon, to identify new investment opportunities and to assess further means of strengthening the economic relationship between Australia and Mexico.

Representatives from Mexico’s export promotion agency ProMexico will conclude their visit to Australia today.

The Panama Canal Authority will assess the consortium’s US$3.12 billion bid, led by Spain’s Sacyr Vallehermoso and Italy’s Impregilo, for technical issues before confirming the deal.

The consortium beat two rival consortiums for the contract. Presenting significant savings and a sound technical front, the group was said to have the ‘best value’ bid, which will see canal capacity double to accommodate newer, wider ships.

“This event marks a critical milestone for the Panama Canal Authority and Panama,” said Alberto Aleman Zubieta, CEO of the Panama Canal Authority. “We look forward to awarding the contract in the coming days.”

The canal sees about five percent of the world’s cargo, mostly trade between Asia and the east coast of the USA.

Australia leads the Asia-Pacific region with 5,298 cases, while Britain has recorded the most cases in Europe, 7,447.

The flu, which originated in North America, has now spread to 136 countries.

Argentina recorded the highest death rate over the weekend, with 34 fatalities since WHO’s last report on Friday and a total death toll of 60. Its death toll is now the world’s third highest behind the USA (170) and Mexico (119).

Some countries do not track all cases, which means the number of people with the virus may have already passed 100,000.

Emerging economies will outpace industrialised countries, growing 0.7 percent this year and 4.1 percent in 2010.

“Some real economy indicators are improving, anticipation surveys of investors and consumers are pointing up and financial players are showing a renewed appetite for risk,” said François David, chairman of Coface.

The agency has maintained its lowered ratings for most European countries but has downgraded Austria, the Netherlands and Finland and put Portugal, Slovakia and the Baltic countries on negative watch as the global recession begins to affect their economies.

And while Latin America has remained steady, Central America has shown some damage from exposure to the North American downturn.

The most positive signs come from the Asia-Pacific region with China and India the strongest in recovery. However, Coface has retained the negative watch placed on China’s A3 rating in January 2009 due to recurrent problems of private sector companies, where the default payment risk is the highest.