KIEV, Ukraine (AP) -- Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko said Wednesday that Kiev should charge Russia more for transit of the gas it sends to Europe via Ukraine, a statement that is likely to aggravate already uneasy relations with Moscow.

Late last year, Ukraine agreed to a 40 percent increase in the price for gas imported from Russia, and now pays $179.50 per thousand cubic meters.

Most of the gas Ukraine uses is imported from the energy-rich Central Asian nation of Turkmenistan. The gas is imported through a Swiss-based trading company, RosUkrEnergo, half of which is owned by Russia's state-owned monopoly Gazprom and half by two Ukrainian businessmen.

Tymoshenko argued that since Ukraine is now paying more for gas, it should also earn more for shipping it to Europe.

"The time has come for Ukraine and Russia to have a discussion regarding the cost of transiting Russian gas through Ukrainian territory to Europe," Tymoshenko said after a Cabinet meeting, according to her office.

Ukraine currently charges $1.70 per 1,000 cubic meters for every 100 kilometers, the same transit price

MOSCOW (AP) -- Russia said Wednesday a draft U.N. resolution on Iran's disputed nuclear program does not call for any harsh sanctions, and the Iranian president said new measures would not deter the country in its pursuit of nuclear technology.

EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana planned to meet with Iran's senior nuclear negotiator later Wednesday in talks that would probably address the new draft resolution, European Union officials said.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said the draft encourages countries to be vigilant in their dealings with Iran to prevent the illegal transfer of nuclear material, but it "does not foresee any harsh sanctions."

"It calls for countries to be vigilant while maintaining trade and economic and transport and other ties with Iran so that they are not used for the transfer of forbidden nuclear material," he said at a news conference a day after the draft was approved by the five permanent Security Council members and Germany.

These terms "will be enforced until the International Atomic Energy Agency's concerns are resolved

NEW YORK (AP) -- Chinese initial public offerings raised more than $100 billion from overseas and domestic capital markets during 2007, according to a report released by an Chinese IPO research group.

The report was prepared by the research wing of Zero2IPO Group, a service provider for the Chinese venture-capital and private-equity industry.

According to the report, there were 242 Chinese IPOs on domestic and overseas markets during the year, totaling $104.83 billion.

On overseas markets, including the Nasdaq Stock Market and New York Stock Exchange, 118 Chinese IPOs raised $39.74 billion. There were 86 Chinese IPOs on overseas markets in 2006 and 81 in 2005.

The number of Chinese IPOs on the New York Stock Exchange rose to 18 in 2007, from 3 in 2006 and 1 in 2005. On the Nasdaq, the number of Chinese IPOs increased to 11 in 2007, from 6 in 2006 and 7 in 2005.

Domestically, 124 Chinese IPOs raised $65.09 billion during the year, compared with the 65 Chinese IPOs that raised $17.11 billion in 2006.

NEW YORK (AP) -- The dollar gained ground against the euro and the pound but fell against the yen Wednesday, a day after the U.S. Federal Reserve's decision to slash its key interest rate.

The 15-nation euro fell to $1.4593 in late New York trading, down from $1.4612 Tuesday. It had climbed as high as $1.4684 in Wednesday's session before falling back, even though the U.S. Congressional Budget Office forecast a higher deficit.

Britain's pound sank to $1.9526 from $1.9625.

The dollar fell against the Japanese currency, however, falling to 105.75 yen from 106.48 yen. Early in the Asian session, the dollar briefly rose to 107.38 yen as regional stock markets rallied. But it reversed course when Asian stocks fell back from morning gains.

"Pessimism about global stocks remains deeply rooted in markets," said Akio Shimizu, head of foreign exchange trading at Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking. "Unless clear signs of a global stock rally appear, investors won't buy back the dollar actively" versus the yen.

Dealers said the U.S. currency could fall to 105 yen if U.S. and European stock markets remain sluggish.

The yen has tended to trade inversely with equity markets. When the Dow rises, investors are more likely

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors, a symbol of American industrial might and the world's top seller of motor vehicles since Herbert Hoover was president, has finally been caught by a foreign rival.

GM conceded Wednesday that Toyota Motor Corp. pulled even last year, each of them selling about 9.37 million vehicles, in another sign that the balance of corporate power is shifting from West to East.

It's the first time GM has been anything other than the exclusive global sales leader since 1931.

The figure of 9,369,524 vehicles sold around the world was a 3 percent increase from 2006 for GM. But Toyota's strong sales growth in the United States in recent years -- and declining sales for GM in its own backyard -- finally closed the gap.

Earlier this month, Toyota reported global sales of about 9.37 million vehicles for 2007. The Japanese automaker said Wednesday it would not release more precise figures, so who's No. 1 remains unclear.

"The race is too close to call," said Mike DiGiovanni, GM's executive director of global market and industry analysis. "I don't think anybody knows at this point."

Toyota's share of the U.S. market has more than doubled since 1990, when it sold about 1 million vehicles

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Sallie Mae, the embattled student lender, said Wednesday it lost $1.6 billion in the fourth quarter as borrowing costs rose and it set aside $575 million to cover bad loans.

To address the growing number of delinquencies and defaults on loans not backed by the government, Sallie CEO Albert Lord said the company is shying away from lending to students it considers unlikely to graduate or attending schools with inferior graduation rates.

Sallie also reported Wednesday that the Securities and Exchange Commission has asked for information concerning its public disclosures around the time of stock sales by its executives and board members. The SEC last year initiated an investigation of trading in Sallie shares related to a planned buyout of the student lender.

During a conference call, Lord apologized for his behavior during a stormy call last month in which he refused to answer analysts' questions and ended the session by uttering an expletive.

Shares of Sallie, formally SLM Corp., fell 1.7 percent, or 33 cents, to $18.69 Wednesday. That is a mere fraction of the $60-per-share buyout offer made last spring by an investor group led by private-equity firm J.C. Flowers & Co. The $25 billion offer for Sallie was later rescinded.

The October-December loss at Sallie Mae was equivalent to $3.98 a share, compared with a profit of $18

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) -- Capital One Financial Corp.'s fourth-quarter profit fell 42 percent, hurt by rising losses on credit card loans and charges from closing its GreenPoint Mortgage business, the credit card company said Wednesday.

Capital One said its fourth-quarter profit totaled $226.6 million, or 60 cents per share, in the period ending Dec. 31, down from $390.7 million, or $1.14, in the same period a year earlier. Quarterly revenue climbed 28 percent to $3.92 billion.

Excluding the company's $95 million charge related to the shutdown of its troubled GreenPoint Mortgage unit, Capital One posted fourth-quarter earnings of 85 cents per share.

Analysts had estimated earnings of 63 cents per share on sales of $4.36 billion, according to a poll by Thomson Financial. Those forecasts usually exclude one-time items.

While the results are consistent with figures reported earlier this month when the company revised its earnings forecast, Capital One's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard D. Fairbank said he remains focused on the future.

"We're acting decisively and aggressively to manage the company ... in the face of cyclical economic head

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Chipmaker Qualcomm Inc. on Wednesday posted an 18 percent increase in fiscal first-quarter profit on strong demand for cell phones that surf the Internet and download music and video.

The world's second-largest maker of chips for cell phones also estimated results for the second quarter and the rest of the year that were pretty close to analysts' expectations. The news came against a backdrop of gloomy market assessments in recent days from industry heavyweights Motorola Inc. and Sprint Nextel Corp.

The results, released after markets closed, cheered investors. Qualcomm's stock jumped 6.5 percent, or $2.37, to $39, after hours, after falling 29 cents during regular trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

After Motorola's downbeat assessment of its handset division, investors were relieved that Qualcomm didn't deliver bad news of it own, said Mark McKechnie, a securities analyst at American Technology Research in San Francisco.

"It looked like a pretty ho-hum report, but some people may have been expecting a disaster," McKechnie said.

Qualcomm earned $767 million, or 46 cents a share, during the three-month period ended Dec. 30, up from $648 million, or 38 cents a share, the same period last year. The latest quarter included per-share