light crude oil settled on Friday at around 36

Political opposition and demonstrations by farmers alsoforced Tata Motors (TAMO.BO) to move a factory for its low-costNano car out of eastern West Bengal state in October. (Editing by Rina Chandran and Valerie Lee) (For the latest Reuters news on India see:in.reuters , for blogs seeblogs.reuters /in). DUBAI, Jan 17 (Reuters) - The U.S. unit of Emaar Properties(EMAR.DU), John Laing Homes, will cut jobs and review operationsdue to the credit crisis and global economic downturn, a companyofficial said in remarks published on Saturday. Stocks Bonds The layoffs will run across John Laing Homes' operations,focused mainly in Southern California and Colorado, which havebeen hit hard by the financial meltdown, Abu Dhabi-based dailynewspaper The National reported. "John Laing is reviewing its operations due to marketconditions," Linda Mamet, a company spokeswoman told the paper,declining to say how many jobs would be cut. "We have made a reduction in force this week and we'll havemore information shortly about the review of the operations,"she said.

In the remarks published by the newspaper Mamet did not givea figure for the number of employees at the U.S unit. Dubai-based Emaar missed analysts' forecasts with a 3.3percent fall in profit in the third-quarter ended Sept. 30, asit took a 750 million dirham ($204.2 million) writedown on itsU.S unit. ID:nLJ330386 John Laing is suffering from the pains of a U.S. mortgagecrisis triggered last year by defaults on subprime mortgages.Emaar bought John Laing for $1.05 billion in June 2006 as theU.S housing market was peaking after five years of expansion.

A spokeswoman for Emaar could not immediately comment on thereport. Work has already stopped on a 180-unit condominium buildingin Hollywood called the Madrone, media reports in Californiasaid. Emaar Chairman Mohamed Ali Alabbar said in November thedeveloper could could make job cuts as it looks to weather theimpact of the global financial crisis that has hit theonce-booming real estate sector of the Gulf emirate. (Reporting by John Irish and Luke Pachymuthu, editing byAnthony Barker) Stocks Bonds. TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's Oil Ministry anticipates a crude oil price of about $40 a barrel in 2009, Oil Minister Gholamhossein Nozari was quoted as saying on Saturday, suggesting Tehran does not expect the market to rebound soon. light crude oil settled on Friday at around $36.5 per barrel, down more than $110 since July as the global economic downturn hit energy demand.

"In the opinion of the Oil Ministry, taking into account predictions by various international institutes, the anticipated oil price in the year 2009 will be around $40," Nozari said according to IRNA.He said the ministry had proposed to the government that the price of oil be set at that level in the 2009-10 budget, which runs from March.OPEC ministers agreed in December to cut production by a record 2.2 million barrels per day (bpd), taking total curbs since September to 4.2 million bpd, the equivalent of 5 percent of global oil supply.But Nozari said supply from non-OPEC producers was expected to grow by 600,000 bpd during the year, without naming them."Under these conditions OPEC member countries decided to cut output but non-OPEC countries are not cooperating," he said.Russia, the world's second-largest oil exporter, faced criticism from OPEC last month for refusing to join in the effort to support energy prices.Russia has said it is considering all options, including joining OPEC, to defend its national interests. The worst performance belonged to Algeria which did not have any cut in its oil production."(Reporting by Hashem Kalantari; Writing by Fredrik Dahl; Editing by Anthony Barker) Russia. TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's OPEC governor said the cartel should reduce output further in order to bring balance to the oil market, state radio reported on Saturday.Mohammad Ali Khatibi said the falling crude price showed that supply continued to exceed demand even though the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) had already cut production by 4.2 million barrels per day, it said.The report did not give any figures for how much Khatibi believed output should be reduced. Earlier this week, he said he still saw around 1 million bpd of extra oil in the market, the official IRNA news agency reported."In order to bring balance in the oil market, OPEC's oil output should be cut further," state radio quoted Khatibi as saying."Even subsequent to the recent cuts ... Souls of My Sisters Books Presents a Panel Discussion on 'What the ObamaPresidency Means to Me'Headlining Speakers Include U.S Rep Gregory W.