World News - "China has unveiled plans to establish a $10bn (?6.8bn) investment fund for south-east Asian countries. It has also offered credit of $15bn to the Association of South-East Asian Nations, or Asean.

Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had planned to announce the fund at the cancelled Asean summit this weekend. Asean was set up in 1967 in part to counter influence from communist China but has since become a vehicle for close ties. [BBC News]

...Terms of the aid weren't made public. Signaling concern for several small, but key, allies, Mr. Yang offered $39.7 million in aid to Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar. China also pledged 300,000 tons of rice to poor countries and 2,200 scholarships to students from the region.

Meanwhile, loans by Chinese banks in yuan grew in March to a record high and the central bank said it would keep pumping out money, as Beijing continued to unleash credit in an effort to stimulate the economy despite concerns about asset bubbles and bad debt. [Wall Street Journal]

Meanwhile, the Associated Press reports that "Also Sunday, the People's Bank of China, the central bank, said in a statement it would ensure the financial system would have sufficient liquidity for economic development. The bank said it would boost financing for the agriculture sector and small and medium-size enterprises...

Some analysts see a recovery taking shape in China as the 4 trillion yuan ($586 billion) stimulus boosts credit growth and demand for steel and other materials. But they caution that the indicators are tentative and show mostly the effect of government spending, while private consumption and investment are weaker. [Associated Press]