KHARTOUM Sudan AP Sudan should let the market determine its exchange rate a former Sudanese finance minister said in remarks published Tuesday. Sudan one of Africa's poorest states has three exchange rates. The official or the customs rate which currently stands at 2300 Sudanese pounds to the dollar. The commercial bank rate that fluctuates between 2302 and 2315 pounds to the dollar. And the black market where a dollar sells for 2340 pounds. ``The unification of the official and black market exchange rates and the application of a foreign exchange market system as a mechanism for revealing the real rate'' would help the government Abdel-Rahman Hamdi said in remarks published in the newspaper Al-Usbu. JIDDAH Saudi Arabia AP The Saudi businessman Hani Yamani and Eritrean Airlines have put up dlrs 2 million to create a new airline Yamani's office said Tuesday. Red Sea Airlines will be 60 percent owned by Yamani's Jiddah-based company Air Harbour Technologies and 40 percent owned by Eritrean Airlines. In addition Yamani's office said Air Harbour Technologies plans to invest more than dlrs 150 million during the next five years to develop tourism on Eritrea's Red Sea coast. The company plans to build six hotels and four airports on the coast and in the Dahlak archipelago a group of 300 islands in the Red Sea. MANAMA Bahrain AP Credit Suisse Bank is to close its office in Bahrain at the end of December an official of the bank said Tuesday. The official speaking on condition of anonymity declined to give the reasons for the closure but said Credit Suisse would move its Bahrain operations to its regional office in Dubai in the United Arab Emirates. The Zurich-based Credit Suisse has had an office in Bahrain since 1975. Bahrain is the Middle East's leading banking center. About 47 offshore banking units operate from the tiny Gulf island. KUWAIT AP The price index of the Kuwait Stock Exchange fell by 10.04 percent in November closing the month at 1777.1 points a market report by the National Investments Co. said Tuesday. The decline was caused by low oil prices and the crisis between Iraq and the United Nations over weapons inspectors the report said. A local controversy over a government proposal to pump money into the exchange also contributed to the fall the report said. The central bank governor Sheik Salem Abdul-Aziz al-Sabah was reported to have resigned to protest a decision by a ministerial committee to allow investment companies to extend special loans to investors. The dispute ended when the Cabinet allowed the central bank to decide if the exchange needed the extra funding. The report said some 506.86 million shares changed hands in the 21 days of trading during November down 24.9 percent from those traded during the same number of days in October. The value of these shares also dropped by 34.41 percent to 99.43 million dinars dlrs 329.2 million. The figures were the lowest this year. The exchange lists 77 companies but trading is restricted to Kuwaitis and nationals of the other five Arab states in the Gulf: Saudi Arabia the United Arab Emirates Bahrain Qatar and Oman. AMMAN Jordan AP The number of ships docking at Jordan's Red Sea port of Aqaba fell by 14 percent to 2172 ships between January and October this year an official said Tuesday. The decline was caused by the shrinking number of passengers taking the ferry from the Egyptian port of Nuweiba' said the director-general of the Aqaba Port Authority Mohammed Dalabeeh. Dalabeeh declined to elaborate but he appeared to be referring to the Jordanian government's decision to impose stringent measures on Egyptians seeking work in Jordan. Iraq Jordan's largest trade partner has used Aqaba for much of its imports since its own ports were heavily damaged during the 1991 Gulf war. Dalabeeh said the total volume of goods handled at Aqaba between January and October this year was 10.4 million tones 2 percent more than during the same period in 1997. UR; mo-de-jah-jjh-fsa-am-jbm APW19981201.0430.txt.body.html APW19981201.1332.txt.body.html