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Posted: 16 Mar 2013 09:17 PM PDT

BEIJING (Reuters) - China and the United States should avoid "groundless accusations" against each other about cyber-security and hacking into each other's computer systems, newly installed Premier Li Keqiang said on Sunday.

Li's comments, at the close of China's annual meeting of parliament and a day after he assumed the premiership, come amid a war of words between Beijing and Washington over cyber-attacks and national security.

China's newly-elected Premier Li Keqiang gestures as he answers questions during a news conference after the closing session of the National People's Congress (NPC) at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing March 17, 2013. REUTERS/Jason Lee

A U.S. computer security company said last month that a secretive Chinese military unit was likely behind a series of hacking attacks mostly targeting the United States.

Responding to a reporter at a news conference, Li said he "sensed the presumption of guilt" in the question.

"I think we should not make groundless accusations against each other, and spend more time doing practical things that will contribute to cyber-security," Li said.

"This is a worldwide problem. In fact, China itself is a main target of such attacks," he said. "China does not support, indeed we are opposed to, such activities."

U.S. Treasury Secretary Jack Lew will press China to investigate and stop cyber-attacks on U.S. companies and other entities when he visit China this week, a senior U.S. official said on Friday.

President Barack Obama also raised U.S. concerns about computer hacking in a phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping on Thursday, the same day Xi took office.

(Reporting by Terril Yue Jones; Editing by Nick Macfie)

Cyprus parliament to vote on savings levy

Posted: 16 Mar 2013 06:10 PM PDT

NICOSIA (Reuters) - Cyprus's parliament will decide on Sunday whether savers must pay a levy on bank deposits under terms for an international bailout to avert bankruptcy - with approval far from certain.

People gather at an automatic teller machine in Nicosia March 16, 2013. REUTERS/Yiannis Nisiotis

The euro zone demand on Saturday that savers pay up to 10 percent of deposits as a condition for the 10 billion euro (8.6 billion pounds) bailout drew fury in the eastern Mediterranean island and caused some jitters elsewhere in the region.

Cypriots emptied cash points after news emerged of bailout terms which broke a previous euro zone taboo on protecting depositors in its efforts to address the regional debt crisis.

Newly elected Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades said refusing the bailout would have led to the collapse of the island's two largest banks, badly singed by their exposure to bailed out neighbour Greece.

The tax on deposits in Cyprus, which accounts for only 0.2 percent of the euro zone's economy, is expected to raise up to 6 billion euros as a condition for the bailout, mainly needed to recapitalise banks.

Those affected will include rich Russians with deposits in Cyprus and Europeans who have retired to the island as well as Cypriots themselves.

The size of foreign deposits in Cyprus - estimated at 37 percent of the total - was one reason the euro zone agreed to the tax on savings, to take effect when banks reopen on Tuesday. Cyprus stopped electronic transfers over the weekend.

In Spain, one of four other states getting euro zone help and seen as a possible candidate for a sovereign rescue, officials were quick to say that Cyprus was a one-off. A Bank of Spain spokesman said there had been no sign of deposit flight.

Two Cypriot banks in Britain told savers their money was safe.

Cyprus's parliament was due to convene at 4 p.m. (2:00 p.m. British time) in an emergency session to discuss the proposed penalties on deposits: 9.9 percent for those exceeding 100,000 euros and 6.7 percent on anything below that.

PAIN OR CATASTROPHE

The choice facing Cyprus was between "the catastrophic scenario of disorderly bankruptcy or the scenario of a painful but controlled management of the crisis," President Anastasiades said in a written statement.

His right-wing Democratic Rally party, with 20 seats in the 56-member parliament, needs support from other factions for a vote to pass.

"The dilemmas are very tough," said Marios Karoyian, head of the Democratic Party, junior partner in the coalition government. "Things are unbelievably hard."

He did not say which way his party would vote on Sunday. It is already split over backing Anastasiades three weeks ago.

Cyprus's Communist party AKEL, accused of stalling on a bailout during its tenure in power until the end of February, was likely to vote against the measure. The socialist Edek party called EU demands "absurd".

"This is unacceptably unfair and we are against it," said Adonis Yiangou of the Greens Party, the smallest in parliament but with the potential ability to swing any vote.

"They have got a gun to our head," he said.

Saving Cyprus's financial sector would have been impossible without the levy because of its size relative to output - more than twice the EU average, Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem said in Brussels.

(Editing by Matthew Tostevin)

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