Scotland has been named one of the top 10 countries to visit in 2017.

It is second on the Rough Guides' list of "must see" destinations, which also includes Uganda, Bolivia and India.
The travel company said a Highland road trip along the North Coast 500 was one of the main reasons to visit Scotland.
And in the year the first Harry Potter book marks its 20th anniversary, it said there was no better excuse to visit some of the locations made famous by the magical films.
"Wildlife, whisky and a wonderfully warm welcome make Scotland a perennially popular destination, but in 2017 there are even more reasons to visit," Rough Guides added.
Rough Guides sings the praises of the North Coast 500 in its appraisal of Scotland.
It the 500 mile route as a "rugged road-trip route through the Highlands, past isolated bothies, white-sand beaches and top-notch surf spots".
VisitScotland has recently credited the route with boosting tourist numbers to Scotland's north west mainland coast.
1. India
2. Scotland
3. Canada
4. Uganda
5. Bolivia
6. Nicaragua
7. Portugal
8. Finland
9. Namibia
10. Taiwan
The travel company also recommends Scotland's food and drink scene to visitors.
It describes Glasgow as "one of the best places to head for culinary experimentation" and it highlights the work of Scottish microbreweries - and the fact that their products can be found at even the most remote pubs.
Rough Guides added: "If you're the type to eschew beer for butterbeer, the 20th anniversary of the first Harry Potter book makes a great excuse for a trip.
"Hop on the Jacobite steam train (also known as the Hogwarts Express) for a magical journey over mountains and freshwater lochs, hang out in JK Rowling's charming Edinburgh haunts, or hike out to the site of Hagrid's hut in awe-inspiring Glen Coe."
Last year Hull was named one of the top 10 cities to visit in 2016.


A 49-year-old man has died after being hit by a car which failed to stop, South Wales Police has said.

The incident happened outside The Ifor Hael Hotel in Llwynypia, Tonypandy, on Thursday at 23:15 BST.
Police are appealing for the driver and any occupants of a small hatchback car to come forward.
The road was closed overnight for five hours while investigations took place.


Severe winter storms over the last two years are believed to have led to the recent discovery of relics from the Spanish Armada off the Irish coast.

Cannons from the merchant vessel, La Juliana, have been found in the sands off Streedagh, County Sligo.
Timbers from the exposed wreck began washing ashore in April.
The guns date back to 1588, but are said to be in excellent condition. Two have been taken off the seabed.
One bears a dedication to St Matrona, a saint particularly venerated by the people of Catalonia and Barcelona.
It is dated 1570, the year in which La Juliana was built, putting the identity of the ship beyond doubt, the Irish government has said.
Heather Humphreys, minister for arts, heritage and the gaeltacht, has visited the wreck site.
"We have uncovered a wealth of fascinating and highly significant material, which is more than 425 years old," she said.
"This material is obviously very historically and archaeologically significant."
Two other vessels from the Armada sank nearby in violent storms in September 1588.
More than 1,000 soldiers and mariners drowned when the La Lavia and Santa Maria de Vision went down.
La Juliana traded between Spain and Italy until King Philip II commandeered it for the Armada fleet of 130 ships to invade England and take Queen Elizabeth I's throne.
The boat weighed 860 tons, carried 32 guns, 325 soldiers and had a crew of 70.
A security operation is in place to safeguard the valuable shipwreck site from treasure hunters.


Opposition is growing against plans for a smaller version of a seafront leisure centre which was destroyed by fire just over two years ago.

Neath Port Talbot council wants to spend £13.6m on a new six-lane swimming pool, sports hall and community centre to replace the Afan Lido in Aberavon.
But campaigners want the pool to have eight lanes, a bigger sports hall and room for spectators.
The council said the cost and design would be part of a consultation.
The campaigners claim their ideas could be incorporated for less than what the council plans to spend.
"We just want them to get it right," said Harry Worth, chairman of Aberavon lifeguard club.
"We want the local community to have their say. We called a public meeting this week so the local community could express their concerns.
"About 300 turned up and they were unanimous that they wanted an eight-lane pool and spectator terrace.
"There were some council members there and we wanted the council to understand the level of feeling in the local community."
Phil Robinson, secretary of Afan Lido FC, which is next to the old site, also backs the appeal.
"The thing we are concerned about is the sports hall is not big enough - it's a sports hall with room for one five-a-side court and without spectators," he said.
"We have hundreds of kids. We have children aged three, four, five, six, seven but if you brought your child, you cannot watch them.
"In the old place we had two courts and there was 700 seats. All we are asking is for it to be as it was with the equivalent of two five-a-side courts and have about 100 seats.
"Since the fire, our kids are all over the place. We are hiring a local boys club and school halls."
The Afan Lido was opened in 1965 by the Queen with Graham Jenkins, the brother of Hollywood star Richard Burton, its first manager.
Over the years, the venue was able to host large-scale concerts, and the bands who played there crossed musical eras, from Spencer Davies to Pink Floyd and more recently Coldplay and McFly.
But in December 2009, homes were evacuated and roads closed as more than 100 firefighters tackled a large blaze at the lido.
At the height of the blaze in December 2009, 17 fire vehicles were deployed and crews were unable to enter the the leisure centre once the flames broke through the roof.
The gutted building was flattened at the end of last year after asbestos delayed clearing the site.
A total of 2,628 people took part in a Neath Port Talbot council consultation on replacing the Afan Lido.
Although many people said they would like to see an identical rebuild, the council said it was costing £700,000 a year to keep the old lido going before its demise.
Instead, it is proposing a new 25m six-lane swimming pool to replace the Aquadome water attraction and slides that used to exist.
There will also be a four court indoor sports hall and new community facilities.
Sandfields library and lifelong learning centre will move to the site once it is completed.
Councillors have been told the total project cost had been budgeted at £13.6m and wanted to have it open by 2013.
Since the consultation, Neath Port Talbot has begun negotiations with a private company to move the replacement leisure centre to the neighbouring Hollywood Park complex.
The plan would be to house the six-lane pool in the unopened bowling alley with the rest of the replacement centre built alongside it and linked to a cinema which already exists.
BBC Wales understands another consultation exercise on the new location is likely to happen after the council elections in May.
"I understand the council wants to do something with the Hollywood bowl and we are not opposing that but we wanted to make sure the main function of replacing the Afan Lido is not lost," Mr Worth added.
"We want to make sure the local people have a good facility for many years."
Mr Worth said a new leisure centre with an eight-lane pool in Haverfordwest cost just over £8m and feels a similar project could be done in Aberavon.
A Neath Port Talbot Council spokesperson said: "The cost and design of the new Afan Lido will fall out of the consultation and procurement process that the council is currently proceeding with."


Beijing has hit back at Washington for "irresponsible remarks" after the US criticised its treatment of Chinese Nobel peace laureate Liu Xiaobo.

The political activist, who is serving an 11 year term on subversion charges for calling for greater democracy, has been moved to hospital after being diagnosed with terminal liver cancer.
His wife Liu Xia, who is under house arrest, says it is beyond treatment.
The US has called on China to give the couple "genuine freedom".
"We call on the Chinese authorities to not only release Mr Liu but also to allow his wife Ms Liu Xia out of house arrest," US embassy spokeswoman Mary Beth Polley said.
Some American politicians have also called on China to allow the dissident, a key leader in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989, to travel overseas for medical help.
But Chinese foreign spokesman Lu Kang criticised the calls, saying: "China is a country with rule of law. Everyone is equal before the law. All other countries should respect China's judicial independence and sovereignty and should not use any so-called individual case to interfere in China's internal affairs."
Mr Liu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2010, with the Nobel committee describing the jailed dissident as "the foremost symbol" of the human rights struggle in China.
He was not allowed to collect his prize and was represented at the awards ceremony by an empty chair. The Chinese government, which regards him as a criminal, was infuriated by the award.
Following the award, Mrs Liu was placed under house arrest, although she was never charged with a crime. The Chinese authorities have never explained why they restricted her movements.
According to friends, Mrs Liu has been allowed to visit her husband, who is being treated in hospital in northern Liaoning Province after being diagnosed a month ago.
The Nobel laureate was diagnosed with cancer on 23 May, lawyer Mo Shaoping told the  South China Morning Post. He was released days later and is now being treated in the northern city of Shenyang.
"He has no special plans. He is just receiving medical treatment for his illness," Mr Mo told AFP news agency.
But speaking in a video which was shared online this week, a tearful Mrs Liu said: "[They] cannot perform surgery, cannot perform radiotherapy, cannot perform chemotherapy."
A statement from the government in Liaoning said Mr Liu had been released on medical parole and was being treated by eight tumour experts.
Mr Liu has three years left to serve of an 11-year sentence for "inciting subversion" after drafting Charter 08 - which called for multi-party democracy and respect for human rights in China.
Amnesty International said he should never have been jailed.
It urged China to ensure he received "adequate medical care, effective access to his family and that he and all others imprisoned solely for exercising their human rights are immediately and unconditionally released".
Following his Nobel award, China froze diplomatic ties with Norway - relations were normalised only last December.


The US state of Virginia has used the electric chair to put to death a man who killed two fellow prisoners to speed up his own execution.

Robert Gleason, 42, was the first Virginia inmate to choose electrocution over lethal injection since March 2010.
The former tattoo artist pleaded guilty to a 2007 murder and subsequently killed two fellow prisoners, while waiving all his rights to an appeal.
Virginia's governor declined to intervene in the case.
Authorities pronounced Gleason dead at 21:08 on Wednesday (02:08 GMT on Thursday) at the Greensville Correctional Center in the town of Jarratt.
Gleason's lawyers had argued he had a long history of mental illness and his condition had deteriorated during a year in solitary confinement.
Two other evaluations deemed him capable of making his own decisions.
He strangled his cellmate, 63-year-old Harvey Watson, in 2009, after tricking him into allowing his hands to be tied by pretending it was part of an escape plot.
According to court records, Gleason taunted his victim by stuffing a urine-soaked sponge into his mouth before killing him.
While awaiting sentencing, he strangled 26-year-old Aaron Cooper.
Gleason said that he asked Cooper to try on a "religious necklace" through a wire fencing separating them.
He had said in multiple interviews that he had waived the appeals process because he knew he would kill again if he was not executed.
"Someone needs to stop it," he told the Associated Press at the time of the first inmate murder. "The only way to stop me is put me on death row."
He repeated threats to murder again in court on numerous occasions.
Governor Bob McDonnell said in a statement on Friday: "Gleason has expressed no remorse for these horrific murders.
"He has been found competent by the appropriate courts to make all of these decisions."
Only 157 death-row electrocutions have taken place out of 1,320 executions since the US death penalty was reinstated in 1976, according to the Death Penalty Information Center.


Scotland's most senior police officer has indicated he is likely to leave the post when his contract ends next year.

Sir Stephen House became the first chief constable of Police Scotland when the new single force was created in 2013.
His four-year contract is due to end in September 2016.
In an interview with the Herald newspaper, Sir Stephen said he was "unlikely" to apply for a second contract.
He said: "September 2016 will get me to somewhere like 35 and a half years in policing, probably a fair innings.
"The idea of me applying for a second contract is unlikely."
Sir Stephen oversaw the complex amalgamation of Scotland's eight regional police forces into a single national force, which is the second largest in the UK.
Since then, he has overseen successes such as the policing of last year's Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
But his decision to put armed officers on routine patrols, as well as the controversy over the force's policy on stopping and searching juveniles, put him on a collision course with politicians.
Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Willie Rennie told the annual conference of the Scottish Police Federation on Wednesday that his party no longer had confidence in Sir Stephen, and called on him to "change his ways" or go.
Mr Rennie said politicians had "too often" been told one thing by the force's leadership on a list of controversial issues including stop and search, armed police and targets only to discover they were "untrue".
First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said last month she has "full confidence" in Sir Stephen.
In an interview for the BBC's Scotland 2015 programme on Thursday, Sir Stephen admitted the speed at which Police Scotland had to be set up meant it had not been able to "go as carefully as we should have done", and said some things "could and should" have been done better.
He added: "I can tell anyone hand on heart that I have never been more accountable than I am now, and if you talk to any of my senior officers, divisional chief superintendents running different parts of policing in Scotland, they will all tell you the same thing.
"(We are) far more accountable under the new system in Police Scotland than ever was the case when there was eight forces."


Wakefield Trinity Wildcats have signed Cronulla Sharks prop David Fifita on a deal until the end of the season.

The 26-year-old Tonga international is unlikely to make his Wildcats debut at Huddersfield on Sunday.
The Super League side have the option of a further year on his contract.
Coach Chris Chester said: "It is a massive signing for the club. We have monitored him closely over the last six to eight weeks and know he will bring some real punch and aggression."


Rape victims in El Salvador may be allowed to have abortions under proposals put forward by the governing party.

The left-wing Farabundo Marti Liberation Liberation Front (FMLN) wants to allow abortion in cases of rape, risk to the mother's life or if the foetus is unviable.
The practice is currently completely banned in El Salvador.
The FMLN will need the support of an extra 12 lawmakers to pass the bill.
The bill was backed by the president of Congress, Lorena Pena, who proposed that women whose life was at risk or those who had been raped or trafficked be allowed to end their pregnancy.
"It's a duty of legislators to give women a chance to save their lives, so that they don't die in those circumstances. It [the bill] is also meant to take into account the impact giving birth has on girls who have been raped," she said.
Opposition lawmaker Ricardo Velasquez Parker said the FMLN's proposal was an attempt to divert attention away from the financial problems of he government, which is facing a massive deficit.
Mr Velasquez backs a rival bill which would have abortion punished with up to 50 years in jail, the same as aggravated murder.
Under current Salvadorean law, anyone who is found to have "provoked, allowed or carried out an abortion" can be sentenced to between two and eight years in prison.
El Salvador is not the only Latin American country with a strict abortion ban. Chile, the Dominican Republic, Honduras and Nicaragua also do not allow abortions under any circumstances.


Tensions between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo are being played out among the diaspora communities - and perhaps nowhere more so than in one district of the Belgian capital.

African grocers, dozens of hairdressers, and music and video stores line the streets of Matonge in Brussels.
There is a Matonge in the Democratic Republic of Congo's capital Kinshasa too. When Belgium was the colonial power, the Congolese who came to Brussels created a marketplace a little bit like home - although Matonge in Kinshasa is a lot livelier, and the weather is better.
There is a substantial community of people from Central Africa living in the Brussels Matonge - including around 25,000 from DR Congo, many of whom are naturalised Belgian citizens, and perhaps 10,000 Rwandans.
They come to Matonge to shop. But in recent months, they have come to argue, too, about DR Congo's war - and sometimes to fight.
Congolese here blame Rwanda for perpetuating the war in eastern DR Congo by arming and supporting rebel militias, plundering the country's mineral wealth.
Each Tuesday, supporters of the Congolese and Rwandan opposition gather outside the Rwandan embassy to call for an end to Rwanda's interference in DR Congo.
But occasionally the protests spread to the streets of Brussels, and Rwandans in Matonge have been targeted.
Rwandan Grace Nyawumuntu's brother Jules paid the price.
After a demonstration by Congolese opposition supporters outside the Rwandan embassy in Brussels, a gang of Congolese accosted him.
"They asked him: 'Are you Rwandan?'" They chased him through the metro station and beat him," she says. "He was taken to hospital. His jaw was broken."
Mostly, the protests and demonstrations remain peaceful. But Ms Nyawumuntu says when things get worse in DR Congo, as during the occupation of the eastern city of Goma by M23 rebels at the end of last year, the Rwandan community in Brussels fears for its safety.
A recent UN report blamed Rwanda for arming M23. Many Congolese in Brussels go further, calling Congolese President Joseph Kabila puppet of the Rwandan government. The mood among Matonge's Congolese is angry.
Rwandan journalist Ruhumuza Mbonyumutwa was roughed up at one Brussels demonstration a few months ago. "I only go into Matonge to get my hair cut now," he told me. "I don't stay there long, it could be dangerous."
Henry Muke Dishuishe, who leads a Congolese opposition political group in Belgium called the High Council for Liberation, acknowledges some young Belgian Congolese are turning to violence.
"I'm trying to do my best to make peace," he says. "But it's hard sometimes - some Congolese they go to Rwandese shops, they want to break it, and make fights in cafes.
"They make violence so the international community takes notice, because they've written many letters, informed many people, and nobody moves. So they say the only recourse they have is violence here in Europe."
Like many Congolese here, Mr Dishuishe is convinced Europeans are abetting Rwanda's illegal mining in DR Congo, including for coltan, a mineral vital to the electronics industry.
"We have an obligation derived from this colonial past - and a particular responsibility because many of the companies operating in DRC are European companies," says Ana Gomes, a Portuguese Member of the European Parliament with the Socialist Party.
"I'm afraid - I sense the tension is escalating and could turn even nastier than it is already."
But she says many turn a blind eye. "There's like a fatigue about the DRC, in spite of the fact that it is one of the most martyrized countries where the people - and in particular the women - are suffering."
Modern Belgium is uncomfortable with its colonial history - and has reason to be.
The brutality of Belgian King Leopold II, who negotiated personal ownership of Congo and began to plunder its vast resources in the 19th Century, is well documented.
A campaign by journalists and early human rights activists led to the creation of Belgian Congo in the 20th Century. Maybe the brutality and forced labour was reduced, but the plundering and patronising attitude to Africans continued until Patrice Lumumba's National Congolese Movement brought independence in 1960.
Even then, Belgium couldn't leave Congo alone - there is evidence of Belgian involvement in Lumumba's assassination when he became the first independent prime minister.
The Royal Museum of Central Africa just outside Brussels symbolises many of the, now unacceptable, attitudes to Belgian colonialism.
In the museum's marbled portico, golden statues celebrate the "civilising mission" - childlike Africans clutching imploringly and gratefully to the legs of a heroic Belgian nurse, or soldier, or statesman.
Anthropologist and curator Bambi Ceuppens, herself half-Congolese and half-Flemish, says the way the museum ignored the history of Congolese people - merely treating them like the animals and plants as exhibits to be stared at - led to the plundering of culture too.
She says there are many masks and idols that have obvious spiritual and ritual significance. "But we have lost their stories," she says. "They were brought here just because they looked nice."
But some Belgians, mostly from the younger generation, believe their nation has unbreakable links to Africa and a responsibility to help mediate the bloody legacy that still grips DR Congo.
At a quaint, velvet-draped and packed theatre in the Matonge district of Brussels, Belgian producer Raffi Aghekian is introducing his new movie, Kinshasa Mboka Te - Kinshasa Wicked Land - to a mostly white crowd.
It is an offbeat profile of the DR Congo capital, through the lives and sometimes excesses of Kinshasa's people.
"There's a Matonge in Brussels and some of the movie was filmed in Matonge, Kinshasa," Mr Aghekian says. He's concerned that a part of Brussels that should be celebrating Belgium's diversity and history is becoming a place of division and fear.
"I want to bring the two Matonges together," he says.
Another big anti-Rwandan demonstration is planned for 16 February. The news from DR Congo is still bad, with rebel groups, including M23, still in control of many mining areas and tens of thousands still displaced from their homes. Tension in the Brussels Matonge is rising again.
Dan Damon presents World Update on the BBC World Service. Listen back to the programme  from Brussels via iPlayer. Additional reporting by Megha Mohan.


National League club Dagenham & Redbridge have signed former Birmingham City midfielder Charlee Adams on a two-year deal.

Redbridge-born Adams, 22, was recently released by Birmingham when his contract expired.
He was on West Ham's books before joining Birmingham in 2011, since which he has had loan spells at Lincoln City and Kilmarnock.
Adams made two first-team appearances during his time at Birmingham.
Find all the latest football transfers on our dedicated page.


Fresh legal proceedings are being launched by Coventry City FC's owner against the city council over the sale of the Ricoh Arena.

It is the second time Sisu will take the council to court. A judicial review previously found for the council.
The row concerns the council's sale of its 50% share in the arena to Wasps Rugby Club in 2014.
Coventry council leader George Duggins said they would "meet the challenge in court". Sisu has not yet commented.
The row stems back to 2012 when the club was taken to court by then-stadium operator ACL over an unpaid rent bill, which resulted in the Sky Blues played home games at Northampton Town's ground for the 2013-14 season.
The club's owners said the rent was too high and should be renegotiated, but weeks later the council loaned Â£14m in public funds to ACL saying it was protecting an asset for the city.
Sisu questioned the legality of the council's move, but it was upheld by a judicial review in 2014 and in December 2016, the Supreme Court said there were no grounds to appeal.
The city council said it had been notified of Sisu's latest proceedings. It is understood Sisu will argue it was not offered the same terms as Wasps over the sale of the ground.
Mr Duggins said there was a "substantial legal bill" from the first judicial review for Â£750,000 which he said "will be on its way to the owners".
In a statement, the club said: "Coventry City FC does not pay any attention to, or concern itself with, off-pitch legal matters.
"The football club is solely concentrated on matters on the pitch, and securing enough points to maintain our League One status beyond the current season."
The latest development comes after fans were arrested following a pitch protest over the way the club is run.
Mr Duggins told fans: "Continue the protest, if you must do, you have public opinion on your side - not just in Coventry but nationally - but don't spoil that by stepping outside the law"


A water park event that was advertised on social media could be a scam, the Northern Ireland Trading Standards Service has warned.

Thousands of people had signed up to attend the Summer Safari Waterpark UK event that was advertised as coming to Belfast on 16 August.
The Facebook page revealed plans to tour 30 towns and cities across the UK in July and August.
The trading standards office said it could be a "data mining scam".
The Facebook page advertising the event now appears to have been removed.
It comes after a promotion for a non-existent tour based on the BBC's popular Total Wipeout series also proved to be fake.
Councils in Scotland and England have said they had received no notification of the events.
Belfast City Council have also confirmed it has received no application to hold the event.
The NI Trading Standards Service said that the event "appears to be similar" to other events that were advertised as taking place in Belfast last year but did not happen.
It warned that interacting with these pages could allow people to access personal information.
"Clicking a button to say you are 'interested' may seem harmless, but even though the creators of a Facebook event do not explicitly ask for personal details, they can comb through the profiles of those 'interested' or 'going' and pull personal data from their profiles without their knowledge.
"They can do with this data what they like, include selling these details on to online spammers or scammers.
"This is referred to as a data mining scam.
"Until the legitimacy of this individual event can be confirmed, as a precaution we would advise not to interact with it if you see it on the newsfeed."


The London Ambulance Service has made "significant progress" since being put into special measures eighteen months ago, according to the health watchdog.

The service's rating was increased to "requires improvement" in a report by the Care Quality Commission (CQC).
Crews were also praised for their "care and compassion" during the Grenfell Tower fire and recent terror attacks.
The service "should exit special measures within a few months" the CQC report said.
The Chief Inspector of Hospitals Sir Mike Richards said: "The events of the last few months have underlined what a crucial service London Ambulance provide to the capital.
"Overall, the trust has made sustained progress since our last inspection."
But "there is more work still to do" he added.
The CQC will undertake a "well-led review in about six months' time" once a newly appointed leadership teams has had a chance to "settle in".


The final golfing major of the year takes place at Baltusrol Golf Club between 28-31 July.

Highlights from the opening round of tee times include the grouping of Masters champion Danny Willett, US Open champion Dustin Johnson and Open champion Henrik Stenson.
The defending champion, Australian Jason Day, has been grouped with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy and American Phil Mickelson.
It is only the second time that the New Jersey course has hosted the US PGA Championship, having last done so in 2005, with the winner taking home 1.8 million dollars.
12:00 - Mark Brown (US), Patton Kizzire (US), Bradley Dredge (Wal)
12:00* - Chris Kirk (US), Wyatt Worthington II (US), Freddie Jacobsen (Swe)
12:10 - Tommy Sharp (US), Jon Curran (US), K.J. Choi (Kor)
12:10* - Brain Gaffney (US), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Jason Bohn (US)
12:20 - Josh Speight (US), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Jason Kokrak (US)
12:20* - J.B. Holmes, Brian Stuard, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
12:30 - Daniel Berger (US), Darren Clarke (NI), David Lingmerth (Swe)
12:30* - Matt Dobyns (US), Tyrell Hatton (Eng), Harris English (US)
12:40 - Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Kevin Kisner (US), Emiliano Grillo (Arg)
12:40* - Ernie Els (SA), Rickie Fowler (US), Zach Johnson (US)
12:50 - Vijay Singh (Fij), John Daly (US), Padraig Harrington (Ire)
12:50* - Jimmy Walker (US), Chris Wood (Eng), Branden Grace (SA)
13:00 - Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Marcus Fraser (Aus), James Hahn (US)
13:00* - Rada Cabrera-Bella (Spa), Justin Thomas (US), Paul Casey (Eng)
13:10 - Soren Kjedlsen (Den), Scott Hend (Aus), Bill Hurley III (US)
13:10* - Brant Snedeker (US), Brooks Koepka (US), Lee Westwood (Eng)
13:20 - Charley Hoffman (US), Matt Jones (Aus), Rikard Karlberg (Swe)
13:20* - Keegan Bradley (US), Adam Scott (Aus), Jamie Donaldson (Wal)
13:30 - Robert Streb (US), Waughn Taylor (US), Kevin Na (US)
13:30* - Phil Mickelson (US), Rory McIlroy (NI), Jason Day (Aus)
13:40 - Roberto Castro (US), Jonas Blixt (Swe), Gregory Bourdy (Fra)
13:40* - Bill Haas (US), Andy Sullivan (Eng), Jamie Lovemark (US)
13:50 - Omar Uresti (US), Greg Chalmers (Aus), Ross Fisher (Eng)
13:50* - Rod Petty (US), George Coetzee (SA), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn)
14:00 - David Muttitt (US), Smylie Kaufman (US), Zac Blair (US)
14:00* - Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Ryan Helminen (US)
17:15  Colt Knost (US), Joe Summerhays (US), Yuta Ikeda (Jpn)
17:15* - Michael Block (US), John Senden (Aus), Harold Varner III (US)
17:25 - Ryan Palmer (US), Rob Labritz (US), Gary Woodland (US)
17:25* - Johan Kok (SA), Troy Merritt (US), Kevin Chappell (US)
17:35 - Scott Piercy (US), Alex Noren (Swe), Andrew Johnston (Eng)
17:35* - Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Fabian Gomez (Arg), Russell Henley (US)
17:45 - Rocco Mediate (US), Rich Berberian Jr (US), Shaun Micheel (US)
17:45* - David Toms (US), Rich Beem (US), Steve Stricker (US)
17:55 - Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Tony Finau (US), Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)
17:55* - James Morrison (Eng), Brandon Stone (SA), Billy Horschel (US)
18:05 - Luke Donald (Eng), Matt Kuchar (US), Danny Lee (NZ)
18:05* - Jason Dufner (US), Y.E. Kang (Kor), Martin Kaymer (Ger)
18:15 - Francesco Molinari (Ita), Shane Lowry (Ire), Jim Furyk (US)
18:15* - Brendan Steele (US), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Byeong Hun An (Kor)
18:25 - Sergio Garcia (Spa), Jordan Spieth (US), Bubba Watson (US)
18:25* -  Marc Leishman (Aus), Russell Knox (Sco), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)
18:35 - Justin Rose (Eng), Patrick Reed (US), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
18:35* - Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Jim Herman (US), Thomas Pieters (Bel)
18:45 - Danny Willett (Eng), Dustin Johnson (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
18:45* - Soomin Lee (Kor), Joost Luiten (Ned), William McGirt (US)
18:55 - Graeme McDowell (NI), Webb Simpson (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA)
18:55* - K.T. Kim (Kor), Brad Lardon (US), Peter Malnati (US)
19:05 -Ben Polland (US), Ryan Moore (US), Kyle Reifers (US)
19:05* - Daniel Summerhays (US), Rick Schuller (US), Camerson Tringale (US)
19:15 - Mitch Lowe (US), Young-han Song (Kor), Kevin Streelman (US)
19:15* - Bryce Molder (US), Brad Ott (US), Si Woo Kim (Kor)
12:00 - Michael Block (US), John Senden (Aus), Harold Varner III (US)
12:00* - Colt Knost (US), Joe Summerhays (US), Yuta Ikeda (Jpn)
12:10 - Johan Kok (SA), Troy Merritt (US), Kevin Chappell (US)
12:10* - Ryan Palmer (US), Rob Labritz (US), Gary Woodland (US)
12:20 - Thorbjorn Olesen (Den), Fabian Gomez (Arg), Russell Henley (US)
12:20* - Scott Piercy (US), Alex Noren (Swe), Andrew Johnston (Eng)
12:30 - David Toms (US), Rich Beem (US), Steve Stricker (US)
12:30* - Rocco Mediate (US), Rich Berberian Jr (US), Shaun Micheel (US)
12:40 - James Morrison (Eng), Brandon Stone (SA), Billy Horschel (US)
12:40* - Anirban Lahiri (Ind), Tony Finau (US), Matthew Fitzpatrick (Eng)
12:50 - Jason Dufner (US), Y.E. Kang (Kor), Martin Kaymer (Ger)
12:50* - Luke Donald (Eng), Matt Kuchar (US), Danny Lee (NZ)
13:00 - Brendan Steele (US), Bernd Wiesberger (Aut), Byeong Hun An (Kor)
13:00* -Francesco Molinari (Ita), Shane Lowry (Ire), Jim Furyk (US)
13:10 - Marc Leishman (Aus), Russell Knox (Sco), Kiradech Aphibarnrat (Tha)
13:10* - Sergio Garcia (Spa), Jordan Spieth (US), Bubba Watson (US)
13:20 - Thongchai Jaidee (Tha), Jim Herman (US), Thomas Pieters (Bel)
13:20* - Justin Rose (Eng), Patrick Reed (US), Charl Schwartzel (SA)
13:30 - Soomin Lee (Kor), Joost Luiten (Ned), William McGirt (US)
13:30* - Danny Willett (Eng), Dustin Johnson (US), Henrik Stenson (Swe)
13:40 - K.T. Kim (Kor), Brad Lardon (US), Peter Malnati (US)
13:40* - Graeme McDowell (NI), Webb Simpson (US), Louis Oosthuizen (SA)
13:50 - Daniel Summerhays (US), Rick Schuller (US), Camerson Tringale (US)
13:50* - Ben Polland (US), Ryan Moore (US), Kyle Reifers (US)
14:00 - Bryce Molder (US), Brad Ott (US), Si Woo Kim (Kor)
14:00* - Mitch Lowe (US), Young-han Song (Kor), Kevin Streelman (US)
17:15 - Chris Kirk (US), Wyatt Worthington II (US), Freddie Jacobsen (Swe)
17:15* - Mark Brown (US), Patton Kizzire (US), Bradley Dredge (Wal)
17:25 - Brain Gaffney (US), Jeunghun Wang (Kor), Jason Bohn (US)
17:25* - Tommy Sharp (US), Jon Curran (US), K.J. Choi (Kor)
17:35 - J.B. Holmes, Brian Stuard, Hideki Matsuyama (Jpn)
17:35* - Josh Speight (US), Kristoffer Broberg (Swe), Jason Kokrak (US)
17:45 - Matt Dobyns (US), Tyrell Hatton (Eng), Harris English (US)
17:45* - Daniel Berger (US), Darren Clarke (NI), David Lingmerth (Swe)
17:55 - Ernie Els (SA), Rickie Fowler (US), Zach Johnson (US)
17:55* - Aaron Baddeley (Aus), Kevin Kisner (US), Emiliano Grillo (Arg)
18:05 - Jimmy Walker (US), Chris Wood (Eng), Branden Grace (SA)
18:05* - Vijay Singh (Fij), John Daly (US), Padraig Harrington (Ire)
18:15 - Rada Cabrera-Bella (Spa), Justin Thomas (US), Paul Casey (Eng)
18:15* - Victor Dubuisson (Fra), Marcus Fraser (Aus), James Hahn (US)
18:25 - Brant Snedeker (US), Brooks Koepka (US), Lee Westwood (Eng)
18:25* - Soren Kjedlsen (Den), Scott Hend (Aus), Bill Hurley III (US)
18:35 - Keegan Bradley (US), Adam Scott (Aus), Jamie Donaldson (Wal)
18:35* - Charley Hoffman (US), Matt Jones (Aus), Rikard Karlberg (Swe)
18:45 - Phil Mickelson (US), Rory McIlroy (NI), Jason Day (Aus)
18:45* - Robert Streb (US), Waughn Taylor (US), Kevin Na (US)
18:55 - Bill Haas (US), Andy Sullivan (Eng), Jamie Lovemark (US)
18:55* - Roberto Castro (US), Jonas Blixt (Swe), Gregory Bourdy (Aus)
19:05 - Rod Petty (US), George Coetzee (SA), Hideto Tanihara (Jpn)
19:05* - Omar Uresti (US), Greg Chalmers (Aus), Ross Fisher (Eng)
19:15 -David Muttitt (US), Smylie Kaufman (US), Zac Blair (US)
19:15* - Nicolas Colsaerts (Bel), Ryan Helminen (US)
* Indicates starting from 10th hole


The actor at the centre of a debate about the casting of British black actors in the US has spoken about how being black has lost him roles.

Daniel Kaluuya, who was born in London, leads the cast of Get Out - a searing racial satire about contemporary America.
Released in the UK this week, Jordan Peele's horror film has already been a massive hit at the US box office, making more than $100m (Â£82.5m).
But the film hit the headlines last week after actor Samuel L Jackson criticised Hollywood for casting black British actors in films about US race relations.
Speaking to the BBC, Skins star Kaluuya said he was proud to be in the first lead role of his career.
"You do stuff, people make decisions and it goes out there and people have opinions. And everyone's entitled to their opinion," he said.
"I love all my black brothers and sisters worldwide, and that's my position.
"All I know is this my first ever lead role in a film and I've lost out on a lot of roles because I'm black."
He added: "It's my one shot. I'm going to come through it and do my thing and go home."
He went on to describe Jackson as a "legend on and off screen".
In his original radio interview a week ago, Jackson said he wondered what Get Out would have been like with a US actor in the lead role.
"Daniel grew up in a country where they've been interracial dating for 100 years," he said.
Clarifying his remarks later in the week, he said his criticism was not of other actors, but of the Hollywood system.
Other actors have joined the debate, with Star Wars actor John Boyega tweeting that it was a "conflict we don't have time for".
In an article for The Guardian, Homeland actor David Harewood argued that Britons may be better suited to some parts because they are not burdened by "what's in the history books".
In Get Out, Kaluuya plays Chris, an African-American photographer who goes with his white girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) to visit her parents at their country home.
Chris is worried because Rose has not told her family she has a black boyfriend.
He initially receives a warm welcome - if a bit odd at times - but as the weekend progresses, Chris discovers Rose's parents have a very different agenda.
"Jordan wrote this as a response to the idea that racism was 'solved' because Obama was president," Kaluuya said.
Peele has admitted he had not wanted to cast a British actor, but that Kaluuya had won him over during an initial audition.
"We spoke on Skype," Kaluuya confirmed. "He was very wary because it's an African-American specific experience, but then we had a chat about what it's like being black worldwide and being black in London."
The film's success has made Peele the first African-American writer-director to earn $100m with his debut movie, according to The Wrap.
How much did Kaluuya identify with the film's themes?
"There are an uncountable amount of instances when I've been paranoid," he said.
"I did a shoot in Lithuania when I was 17. Everywhere I went people were pointing and staring.
"Or when I go to Lidl and I get followed by security guards.  Is that because it's me, I'm black or what I'm wearing?
"It's every day, navigating your life, getting stopped by police, I've had it all."
Kaluuya is currently filming Ryan Coogler's superhero film Black Panther in Atlanta, US.
"It's a life-changing experience for me," he said.  "I can't wait to finish filming so I can watch it."
Get Out is out in the UK on 17 March.
Follow us on Facebook, on Twitter @BBCNewsEnts, or on Instagram at bbcnewsents. If you have a story suggestion email entertainment.news@bbc.co.uk.


Historical photos of Turkish baths which have recently been saved from closure have been found.

The Grade II-listed City Pool and Turkish Baths in Newcastle shut in 2013 as part of Â£100m council cuts.
Fusion Lifestyle Ltd plans to renovate the building and restore the baths which are set to reopen in 2018.
The charity leisure operator found the photos which include one of the construction of the entrance pillars before it opened for use in 1928.
Peter Kay, chief executive of Fusion Lifestyle, said: "We're so lucky to have rediscovered the amazing past of the baths and we're proud to give this historic building a proper future.
"The history of baths on this site goes back even further, to when famous [North East architect] John Dobson initially built private baths in 1838 at a cost of Â£9,500."
The facility, which opened on Northumberland Road in 1928, will be one of about a dozen left in operation.
Fusion has also taken over Newcastle City Hall, which was under threat of closure as part of a consultation into multimillion-pound budget cuts in the city.
It will be sub-leased it to the Newcastle Theatre Royal Trust, which will continue to operate it as a concert and entertainment venue.


Immunotherapy aims to use the body's immune system against tumours, but a struggle to find funding might hamper this cutting edge research.

Most of us know someone who has had to cope with a diagnosis of cancer, with the treatment, and then with the worry that it might return.
In recent years, treatments have made real improvements, but often it is still a matter of prolonging life by just a few months.
Now, at last, some scientists are daring to hope that one approach might lead us to our best hope of a cure.
In the last two years, attention has turned to a form of cancer treatment called immunotherapy. This aims to turn the power of our own immune systems against tumours.
Until recently, immunotherapy has been a poor relation to more traditional approaches, such as chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
Results in the last couple of years have excited cancer specialists. But the timing could hardly be worse.
Positive results have begun to come in just as the world's financial systems started to wobble, and the usual sources of money have become less easy to find.
Venture capitalists, charities and governments not only have less money to spend, but they are less prepared to spend it on "risky" bets - including unproven cancer therapies.
In the US last year, a team at the University of Pennsylvania reported a major breakthrough for immunotherapy - dramatic improvement in three leukaemia patients. Two appeared to be cancer-free a year after treatment.
Results in the UK have been similarly dramatic.
Newsnight has had exclusive access to a groundbreaking immunotherapy trial, in Manchester.
The trial, led by Professor Robert Hawkins at the Christie Hospital, is at the cutting edge of work on one part of the immune system - so-called killer T cells that can attack and kill cancer cells.
These killer T-cells are in the body's frontline of immune defences.
Scientists have already found that they can stimulate their production using drugs, but the approach under trial at the Christie involves taking killer T-cells from a patient's own tumour, and growing these up to form a colony of millions in the laboratory.
The idea is to create an attacking army of killer T-cells to safely re-inject into the patient.
Ben Perdriau, and his wife Joanne, flew from Australia to take part in the trial.
He was diagnosed with melanoma in 2010.
Last year he found it had spread to his brain, and now his body has developed resistance to conventional drugs. He is only the third person to try this pioneering new treatment here in the UK.
"The goal is to look to something with a more promising and durable response and complete response that can last for several years, if not indefinitely," said Mr Perdriau.
"So the therapy that's being developed and being administered is something that does hold that promise. So that's why I'm here, putting my hand up for it," he added.
The treatment matters so much for him because his tumour has developed resistance to the best that chemotherapy can offer.
The operation to remove a part of his melanoma went well.
The team found relatively few killer T-cells in Ben's sample, but these grew well in the lab, and will be ready to re-inject into Ben in early August.
Prof Hawkins says that whilst nothing is certain, the treatment does have a 50/50 chance of working.
Funding hurdles
Head of London's Institute of Cancer Research, Prof Paul Workman explained that although there was a great deal to be excited about in the latest cancer research, getting it out of the laboratory was still difficult.
Scientists at his institute recently published exciting work on one form of immunotherapy, making use of a virus that can hitch a ride on red blood cells, so that it travels straight to a tumour, kills the cancer cells, and also triggers the immune system to attack - a bit like a vaccine.
The problem is, not only is it increasingly hard to find money to pay for such research, but also to find the money and the partners to make sure it gets out in to small and large scale trials in patients, and beyond into the commercial world as treatments.
"Right now we've got a combination of the most exciting science and the most frustrating financial situation," said Prof Workman.
"We've got the cancer genome, we've got immune approaches. We've got incredible science and incredible ideas and we can't fund it. So we have to come up with creative approaches," he added.
He said there needed to be a partnership between industry, government and non-profit organisations - charities and philanthropy to bridge the "'valley of death between excellent basic science and pharmaceutical development."
Prof Workman thinks while "good efforts" are being made by the government, funding basic science, universities and research institutes as well as making it easier for the biotech industry to operate would help ensure the UK stays at the cutting edge. "I think more can be done," he added.
Britain's largest cancer charity has found it so hard to secure money and partners that it has set up its own cancer investment fund.
Cancer Research UK's commercial arm is spending ??25m, with equal funding from Europe, on this new investment strategy.
One of the major problems facing cancer treatment today is that patients develop resistance to even the best in cancer drugs.
They need a new weapon, and many scientists believe that harnessing the power of our immune systems is their best hope.
Watch Susan Watts' report on the promise of immunotherapy in cancer, and the funding "crunch", on
          Newsnight
 tonight at 10.30pm on BBC Two. Or afterwards on BBC iPlayer or the Newsnight website.


Troubled Japanese bitcoin exchange Mt Gox has won temporary bankruptcy protection in the US.

A judge in Dallas, Texas, agreed to protect the firm's assets and temporarily halt two US lawsuits while bankruptcy proceedings occur in Japan.
The firm filed for bankruptcy in Japan in February after losing about $473m (Â£284m) worth of customers' bitcoins to what it says was a hacking attack.
Mt Gox is scheduled to return to court on 1 April to extend the protections.
The firm filed for Chapter 15 protection in the US late on Sunday.
The filing asks the US bankruptcy court to recognize Mt Gox's bankruptcy in Japan and protect its US assets.
And it gives Mt Gox a temporary reprieve against two US lawsuits: one a class-action suit in Chicago filed by an Illinois resident, and another a $75m breach-of-contract case filed in Seattle by Coinlab Inc.
At the time of the Mt Gox theft, about 750,000 customer bitcoins were stolen as well as close to 100,000 of Mt Gox's own bitcoins.
That amounts to about 7% of all the bitcoins in existence.
Steven Woodrow, the lawyer leading the Chicago class-action suit, told Judge Harlin Hale that the case was a "massive fraud".
Mt Gox's attorney, David Parham, denied there was any fraud and said the firm and its founder, Mark Karpeles, were complying with the terms of the Japanese bankruptcy proceeding.


In a letter to mark his retirement on Friday, the Bishop of Gloucester has spoken of his "distressing" and "painful" last days in office.

The Right Reverend Michael Perham was investigated by police over claims of indecent assault, and the Church has launched its own internal probe.
A special service planned to celebrate his time as bishop had to be cancelled.
Addressing the clergy and diocese, Bishop Perham expressed his "sadness" that a proper goodbye was not possible.
Mr Perham was questioned in August over allegations of historical sex offences dating back more than 30 years.
However, the Metropolitan Police confirmed in October it would not be taking the matter any further.
The Church of England said its own internal investigation into the claims was still ongoing and there was no formal timetable for its completion.
When the allegations were made, the Bishop of Gloucester stepped back from his duties and they were handed to the Bishop of Tewkesbury.
In his letter, Mr Perham said he did not wish "to dwell" on his last weeks in office, but wanted to "give thanks for the 10 years in which it has been my privilege to be a bishop for the people of Gloucestershire and beyond".


A woman's body lay under builders' rubble in a back garden for more than 12 years before it was discovered, a jury has heard.

Natalia Wilkanowska, 50, disappeared in 2003 after travelling to visit her ex-husband Gerald Doherty in Luton.
Her body was found in December 2015, Luton Crown Court was told.
Mr Doherty's brothers, Joseph and Daniel, are on trial accused of helping conceal her remains and lying to police.
The court heard Natalia was last seen by her children in April 2003 when she left her Eastbourne home to travel to Luton.
Prosecutor Neil King said her ex-husband was responsible for her death. The couple had separated in 2001 after 23 years of marriage.
Mr Doherty took his own life at a flat in Port Glasgow, Renfrewshire, on their wedding anniversary in July 2003. He had been receiving psychiatric care.
His two brothers, who both wore hearing loops in the dock, face a total of seven charges.
Natalia's death came to light in 2014 when Joseph Doherty revealed Gerald had murdered her, but that her remains had been "chopped up".
Mr King told the court Natalia's body was found a year later - intact - under rubble in the garden of Daniel Doherty's house in Icknield Way, Luton.
She had suffered "a blunt force trauma" inflicted by a third party, but the cause of death could not be established.
Read more on this and other Bedfordshire stories
Mr King said Daniel Doherty, who worked as a builder, must have "connived in the deposition of the body".
He said both men lied to the police and obstructed the coroner.
Daniel Doherty, 67, of Icknield Way, Luton denies two charges of perverting the course of justice and two charges of obstructing the coroner, by aiding and abetting the concealment of a body and lying to police.
Joseph Doherty, 73, of Old Greenock Road, Port Glasgow, denies perverting the course of justice and obstructing the coroner by giving a false account of her death.
Both men also deny preventing lawful burial.
The trial continues.


At least 20 people, including a police chief, were killed in early morning attacks on four villages in northern Nigeria, police say.

Local media say as many as 29 people were killed in the attack by suspected herdsmen from the Fulani ethnic group and police were caught in an ambush.
Unconfirmed reports suggest the herdsmen were acting in revenge.
The BBC's Ishaq Khalid says there is an ongoing conflict between herdsmen and farmers over land and grazing rights.
This particular feud was over the destruction of farm crops, police spokesman Othman Abubakar told AFP news agency.
Mr Abubakar said the gunmen had looted food supplies and set fire to homes before fleeing on Sunday morning.
The police chief of Girei town, in Adamawa State, was killed when police had been ambushed on the way to the site of the attack, he added
One suspect has been arrested.


The United States has eased a number of trade restrictions with Cuba, in President Barack Obama's latest attempt to bypass the US Congress's economic embargo on the island.

American companies are now allowed to lend money to Cuban entrepreneurs and to invest in infrastructure projects.
The new measures also make it easier for US studios to shoot films in Cuba.
The two countries restored relations last year, putting an end to more than five decades of enmity.
President Obama has urged Congress to lift a Cold War-era embargo that bans most trade between US companies and the communist-run island.
Congress has ignored his pleas, but over the past year the US government has announced several measures to encourage trade and a normalisation of relations between the two old foes.
The latest measures were announced by the US Commerce Department on Tuesday and came into force on Wednesday.
The key difference between this announcement and earlier efforts to ease trade with Cuba by the Obama administration is that this time the new rules will apply to trade with Cuban government agencies.
Previous steps were solely aimed at strengthening private entrepreneurs on the island, explains the BBC's Will Grant in Havana.
The easing of export restrictions will apply on a case-by-case basis in areas which "directly benefit the Cuban people," said Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker.
She cited "disaster preparedness, education, agricultural production, food processing and public transportation".
The measures also lift further restrictions on Americans travelling to Cuba, making the current ban on tourism more difficult to enforce.
The embargo has been in place since 1960 and remains a contentious issue in relations between Cuba and the US.
President Raul Castro said at the UN General Assembly in September that now that diplomatic ties were back in place, the overall normalisation of relations "will only be achieved with the end of the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba".


Two men have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the death of a woman who fell from a second floor window.

The woman, in her 30s, fell from a homeless resettlement centre in York, early police inquiries suggest.
Officers were called to the Peasholme Centre, Fishergate at 00:20 GMT, to reports of a sudden death.
The two arrested men, aged 48 and 50 and both from York, are in police custody for questioning.
Forensic officers are examining with the scene, with a police cordon expected to be in place for the rest of the day.


Christmas shoppers have been left bemused after an exhausted swan was spotted struggling outside a shop on a retail park in Swansea.

The female was seen sitting outside the Outfit store at Morfa Shopping Park, near the Liberty Stadium.
The RSPCA collected her and provided overnight care, before transferring her to a specialist wildlife facility.
It is thought the swan ended up at the spot after a nearby pond froze over on Thursday.
RSPCA animal collection officer Ellie West said: "This poor swan was absolutely exhausted and a little shell-shocked with so many shoppers walking past.
"It is hoped she can be released back to the wild in the near future."


Lewis Hamilton admits he is facing "pretty impossible odds" as he seeks to win the Formula 1 world title at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on Sunday.

Heading into the final race, Hamilton is 12 points behind Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg, who will win the title by finishing third, even if Hamilton wins.
The Briton said: "I can't and won't give up. You never know what might happen - however unlikely it may seem."
Rosberg said he would "give everything to end the season with a win".
After finishing second to Hamilton at the last race in Brazil, German Rosberg said he did not know how he would decide to approach the season climax in Abu Dhabi.
He has been sticking to a mantra of "one race at a time" all season, but admitted he might change that for such a crucial event, at which he could win the World Championship for the first time.
However, he said: "In Brazil, after the race, I was joking that I would still be taking things one race at a time. But, the more I think about it, the more that's actually not as crazy as it sounds.
"I have to treat this like any other race. Doing a good job on a grand prix weekend is always a challenge.
"Nothing in this sport is easy, so this won't be any different and I still have to go all out for a good result.
"I have great memories from winning at this track last year and it's somewhere I've usually been strong in the past, so I have every reason to feel confident.
"The closer it gets, the more I'm feeling excited. It will be a big battle and hopefully the fans will get a great show to end the year."
The two drivers have won nine races each so far this season, while Hamilton has 11 pole positions to Rosberg's eight.
While Rosberg has not had a single retirement this season, or any engine problem that has affected a result, Hamilton has had much the worse of the reliability.
The Briton would be leading the championship had he not suffered an engine failure while leading in Malaysia in September, and he also had engine failures in qualifying in China and Russia early in the season that affected his points score.
But he has also not helped his own cause with poor weekends in Baku and Singapore and a series of poor starts.
Hamilton added: "I'm in a good place right now. I'm feeling super-strong in this amazing car that everyone at the factories has worked so hard to give us.
"I've had 31 wins in four years with this team so far, which is just crazy. I'm so thankful for the great opportunity these guys have given me. We're continuing to make history together.
"It's not been a perfect season and I'm faced with pretty impossible odds no matter what I do this weekend.
"I'll be proud of myself and what I've achieved as long as I feel I've given my all and performed at my best.
"And, whatever happens, I'm proud of everyone who's been a part of the success we've shared over the past few years. I'm approaching this weekend the same as I do every race. I want to win and I'll give it everything to finish the season on a high."
Mercedes F1 boss Toto Wolff said: "As a group, we now have one very important final duty this season - to give Nico and Lewis the platform they need to battle it out to the flag.
"Both of them have been exceptional and either one would make a worthy champion.
"After such a battle of endurance, the winner can say without doubt that they earned it. We are all excited to see who that will be. May the best man win."


(Close): London's main share market closed lower on Thursday, dragged down by oil and mining companies

The FTSE 100 ended down 55.78 at 5974.54 points, with Anglo American the biggest loser.
Shares in British Gas owner, Centrica, were the best performer, rising through the day to end up 7% after its drop in profit was smaller than expected.
Shares in defence group BAE Systems rose 1.3% as the company forecast earnings growth of up to 10% in 2016.
On the wider market, Tullow Oil tumbled 11%. after the oil producer said there could be an issue with a storage vessel at its flagship Jubilee field in Ghana.
On the currency markets, the pound was up 0.18% against the dollar at $1.4318, while against the euro, it was 0.5% higher at â‚¬1.2911.


Publisher DC Thomson said a multi-million-pound move to its refurbished Meadowside headquarters is a "vote of confidence" on its future in Dundee.

More than 600 staff working in newspapers, magazines and digital media have relocated from the company's offices on Kingsway East.
Meadowside, which was built for DC Thomson in the early 1900s, originally opened in 1906.
Its newspaper production will continue at the Kingsway printing presses.
The company's titles include the Courier, Evening Telegraph and Sunday Post newspapers, and the Beano comic.
The future of the remainder of the Kingsway site is currently being negotiated.
David Thomson, director and chief operating officer, said: "It's fantastic to be back in the heart of Dundee where we belong, in the centre of a city with such an exciting future.
"The original opening of this building 111 years ago was a major vote of confidence in a flourishing business and a clear statement to the city that DC Thomson was here to stay in Dundee.
"I think the same could be safely said on our return here today."
The Meadowside building is on the former site of Dundee's General Post Office. A 10-storey extension was added to the building in 1963.
Mr Thomson said: "It's a positive time for the city as we see the impressive V&A Museum of Design Dundee emerging on the waterfront, creating an international centre of design for Scotland.
"Many creative and commercial opportunities are being developed in Dundee, such as the Dundee Design Festival  in our former print works at West Ward.
"It's great to be back and we're proud to be playing our part in the resurgence of Dundee and its city centre."


Chinese tech giant Huawei on Wednesday said its global smartphone sales jumped by 39% in the first half of the year.

It comes after the world's fourth-biggest smartphone maker posted a 30% growth in overall revenue on Monday.
Huawei said it shipped 48.2 million devices globally in the first half of 2015, giving them a 87% surge in handset sales revenues
The company is competing with Apple and Xiaomi for the top spot in China, the world's biggest handset market.
The boost in sales figures comes after the firm said it would shed its low-cost appeal and include high-margin premium models to challenge Samsung and Apple at the top-end of the market.
Huawei said that shipments for the mid-to-high-end category recorded a year-on-year increase of 70%.
Regarding sales in China, the firm managed to defy a slowdown hitting its rivals Samsung and Xiaomi.
Overall smartphone shipments in China in the first quarter of 2015 shrank for the first time in six years, with one-time leader Xiaomi saying the domestic market was nearing saturation.
On Monday, Huawei released its earnings results for the first six months of the year, posting a 30% increase in revenue to 175.9bn yuan ($28.3bn; Â£18.2bn) and giving a positive outlook for further growth in 2015.
Aside from smartphones, the Shenzhen-based firm is one of the world's largest telecommunications companies, competing with the likes of Sweden's Ericsson on infrastructure such as mobile phone masts.


Nick Matthew won a record fifth Canary Wharf Classic championship - his third consecutive PSA World Tour title.

The 34-year-old from Sheffield earned a commanding 3-0 win over German Simon Rosner in the final.
Matthew beat the world number nine 11-4, 11-9, 11-7 to become the first man since Ramy Ashour in 2013 to win three consecutive tournaments.
"It's just amazing to win this title for a fifth time and I'm going to enjoy it tonight," said Matthew.
His victory in the Canary Wharf Classic followed him winning the Swedish Open and Windy City Open titles.


A pair of ospreys have produced chicks at a secret Lake District nesting site for the fifth year running, conservationists have revealed.

Three eggs have hatched at the site at Bassenthwaite, near Keswick, according to the Lake District Osprey Project.
The birds - a ringed female known as KL and an unringed male - arrived at the nest last month, having spent the winter in west Africa.
Project spokesman Paul Brady said staff and volunteers were "delighted".
Ospreys returned to the Lake District in 2001, after an absence of more than 150 years.
Several different pairs have nested successfully, raising more than 30 chicks.
Mr Brady said: "This is the fifth year that this particular pair of ospreys have successfully hatched chicks at Bassenthwaite Lake.
"The female and her partner are a successful pair and have captured the imaginations of the thousands of visitors who have come to see them over the last five years. This has been a fascinating story."
The birds can been seen from specially-created viewpoints and visitors can watch live nest-cam images on screens at the nearby Whinlatter visitor centre.


Two men who were arrested by detectives investigating an attempted bomb attack on police in Strabane, County Tyrone, have been released unconditionally.

Officers were lured to Ballycolman estate on 23 October to investigate reports of a bomb thrown at a police patrol vehicle the previous night.
The alert was a hoax but then a real bomb, packed with nails, was discovered in the garden of a nearby house.
The men, aged  29 and 43, had been questioned at Antrim PSNI station.
They had been detained in Strabane on Tuesday morning.
A number of houses were searched and two cars were seized during the operation.
The nail bomb was defused by the Army, and more than 130 schoolchildren and a number of householders were moved as bomb disposal officers dealt with the device.


Rickie Fowler shot a three-under 68 to lead by one from fellow American Patrick Reed after three rounds of The Barclays tournament in New York.

Fowler sank a four-foot birdie putt on the final hole at Bethpage Black, while Australia's Adam Scott was the big mover with a 65 to go seven under.
Scotland's Martin Laird is three shots off the pace after a 69, with Northern Ireland's Rory McIlroy two under (71).
Olympic gold medallist Justin Rose of England is level par after a 70.
"It's nice to finally see some putts go in," Fowler said after a bogey-free round.
"With a few putts going in, it frees up the rest of your game. I've been swinging well for a long time, and I've been waiting for the putter to catch up."
The Barclays is the first of four FedEx Cup play-off events, with the overall winner earning $10m (£7.6m).
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A woman whose home was targeted in an arson attack in the Waterside area of Londonderry has said she will not be intimidated into moving out.

Scorch damage was caused to Katie Greer's house in Nelson Drive some time between Sunday night and Monday afternoon.
Ms Greer believes she could have been seriously injured in the attack.
"I have no idea why my house would have been targeted in the first place," she said.
Ms Greer said that because of an underlying health condition, she was asleep when the attack happened.
"I was in my bed, I've got fibromyalgia," said Katie Greer, "As soon as I opened my front door it was completely charred."
"Everything in the porch and front door was burnt right up to my roof.
"It has made me feel really unsettled but I really like this area and I don't want to have to move out of this area.
DUP councillor Drew Thompson condemned the attack.
"I can't understand the motive behind this attack, it is completely unjustified.


A duet bridging the 7,000 miles between Wales and Patagonia has set a new world record.

BBC Radio Cymru's Shân Cothi sang the Welsh hymn Calon Lân with Andres Evans.
The record-setting link-up, officially "the greatest distance between people singing a duet", was broadcast live on Radio Cymru for BBC Music Day.
It is one of a number of projects marking the 150th anniversary of the establishment of a Welsh settlement, Y Wladfa, in Patagonia in 1865.


A newly-elected Corsican nationalist leader has blamed an "imported ideology" for an attack on a Muslim prayer hall on the French island.

Jean-Guy Talamoni, president of the Corsican assembly, said the anti-Arab violence was "totally incompatible with our political tradition and culture".
Protesters in Ajaccio vandalised a Muslim prayer hall and trashed copies of the Koran on Friday. It was apparent revenge for an attack on firefighters.
On Sunday a crowd defied a protest ban.
Several hundred people waving Corsican nationalist flags marched through Ajaccio, but police prevented them from reaching the Jardins de l'Empereur (Emperor's Gardens) housing estate where Friday's attack happened.
About half of the estate's residents are immigrants.
Previous marches had seen participants shout: "Arabs get out!"
Some protesters blamed local Arabs for an attack on firefighters on Christmas Day, in which two firefighters and a policeman were injured.
French regional elections this month put nationalists in power in Corsica for the first time. On the mainland, the anti-immigration, far-right National Front (FN) made big gains.
The French government has condemned both the anti-Muslim attack and the protests that followed.
Mr Talamoni said the perpetrators of the anti-Muslim attack "were people, in our opinion, who tend to vote for the FN; our nationalism is incompatible with that ideology".
Speaking on France Inter radio, he said the continuing demonstrations "will not help calm the situation".
He blamed "some far-right groups which have been active in Corsica for several months".
"It's an imported ideology... Corsica was the first country in Europe to introduce religious tolerance in the 18th Century... Jews were protected here during the war," he said.
In mainland France local collaborators helped Nazi German occupation forces to deport thousands of Jews to Nazi concentration camps during World War Two.
France beefed up security measures for the Christmas holidays, following the 13 November attacks in Paris by Islamic State (IS) jihadists that left 130 people dead.
The Corsican authorities have banned all gatherings in the flashpoint area of Ajaccio until at least 4 January.
The protesters on Sunday rejected accusations that their rally was racist, chanting: "We fight against scum, not against Arabs!" and "We aren't thugs, we aren't racists!"
In Thursday's incident, the firefighters were ambushed by unidentified "hooded youths" with iron bars and baseball bats, French media report.


Former HSBC boss Lord Green has admitted the bank "didn't get everything right" when buying the Swiss private bank at the centre of a tax evasion scandal.

Former chairman Stephen Green said HSBC should have done more due diligence before the purchase.
He said: "It would have been better to have drilled into the detail much earlier."
Lord Green was speaking to the House of Lords Economic Affairs Committee.
HSBC agreed to pay the authorities in Geneva 40 million Swiss francs (Â£28m) to settle the investigation into allegations of money laundering at the Swiss bank.
The payment was to compensate the authorities for past organisational failings and no criminal charges were filed.
Lord Green was chief executive and then chairman of HSBC between 2003 and 2010.
When asked by Lord Hollick how the bank had allowed "industrial scale" tax evasion at the Swiss private bank, Lord Green said: "I do not believe that anybody was aware of the - to use your phrase - industrial scale systems of tax evasion.
"We became aware of this situation, the extent of it, only in around 2010.
Lord Green also said that the bank failed to carry out due diligence on an acquisition in 2002 of Grupo Financiero Bital in Mexico.
He said: "Yes, with hindsight we should have focussed earlier on the anti-money laundering issues that were plainly in the bank. We should have done that. We didn't get it right."
Investigations by US authorities led to the UK-based bank being fined almost $2bn for failing to stop criminals using its banking systems to launder money.
Lord Green also admitted that the issue of high pay packages for bank employees had disturbed him: "It certainly kept me awake.
"For me this issue of remuneration was the most difficult one we wrestled with. How could anyone be comfortable with a situation where you've got very senior people being paid very large amounts of money or indeed quite young people being paid large amounts of money - an enormous multiple of, let's say the head of large inner city school?
"There's no possible way on moral grounds of justifying this. Did that leave me uncomfortable. You bet it did."


Leon Clarke's ninth goal of the season saw Bury overcome Colchester and move up to third place in League One.

Shakers goalkeeper Rob Lainton denied Colchester's Joe Edwards and George Moncur in the first half, while Bury's Chris Hussey struck the bar.
Lainton continued to keep out United after the break before Clarke headed in a Joe Riley cross to win the game.
The victory sees Bury extend their winning run to five games and their unbeaten away record to 17 games.
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Bury manager David Flitcroft told BBC Radio Manchester:
"Every point we've got we've had to dig deep, it's part of football, it's something that we try and set a team up to give us everything and that's what they have done.
"The goal deserved to win the game. Did we deserve three points? The work we did out of possession and what the authorities have given us to deal with this week, in Peterborough on Tuesday night then there is Colchester, 80 miles apart.
"There's not many teams that will cover that distance over the last four days. That took its toll and took into account. But I'm absolutely delighted with the shift my players have put in."


The Ukrainian parliament has voted to ban propaganda and symbols for "totalitarian Communist and Nazi regimes" in the former Soviet republic.

The list of prohibited items includes street names, flags and monuments commemorating Communist leaders.
Russia says it supports separatists in eastern Ukraine because of a "fascist threat from the Kiev government".
Separately, Ukrainian security officials said they had broken a plot to create a separatist state in Odessa.
Ukraine's SBU security service said it had arrested 29 people in and around the Black Sea port who were planning to create a independent region similar to the self-declared rebel republics in Luhansk and Donetsk.
A total of 254 members of Kiev's 450-member parliament voted in favour of the propaganda ban.
The legislation, which still needs to be signed into law by President Petro Poroshenko, makes it illegal to deny the "criminal" character of Nazi and Communist regimes.
Ukraine gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 and has recently been seeking closer integration with Western Europe.
Items prohibited under the bill include the Soviet flag and hymn as well as monuments and historical plaques commemorating Communist leaders, AFP news agency reports.
A fragile ceasefire is in force in eastern Ukraine in a bid to bring an end to months of fighting between pro-Russian rebels and government forces.
The Donetsk and Luhansk regions declared sovereign states in April.
SBU chief Valentyn Nalyvaychenko told a televised news conference on Thursday that security officers had broken up an organisation preparing to proclaim a similar independent state in Odessa "within the next few days".
He said the group was planning a campaign of assassinations targeting local politicians to destabilise the city. Officers had seized plans, maps, communication equipment, leaflets and banners, he added.
Russia has accused the government in Kiev of being controlled by "fascists" and extremists, focusing on Dmytro Yarosh, the leader of the Right Sector.
Ukrainian officials announced at the weekend that Mr Yarosh would serve as an adviser to the army chief of staff.
The Right Sector first burst to prominence as an ultra-nationalist umbrella organisation, battling riot police and helping man the barricades during anti-government protests last year.


This man has one of the most remote jobs in the British Isles.

Ian Lycett, a wildlife lover from Wolverhampton, is estate warden on the Calf of Man - a tiny and rugged island off the Isle of Man in the Irish sea.
Along with a ornithology warden the island has a population of two.
In severe weather the bird observatory can be cut off for weeks at a time with supplies needing to be delivered by boat and when tides allow.
The film aims to provide an immersive insight into his life on the island as his nine month job as estate warden draws to a close.


The Great British Bake-Off's Mary Berry is pitted against X Factor's Simon Cowell at this year's National Television Awards (NTAs).

They face Cowell's Britain's Got Talent co-star David Walliams alongside his X Factor colleague Cheryl Fernandez-Versini in a new TV judge category.
Game of Thrones, The Walking Dead, Geordie Shore and Celebrity Juice will compete for the new multichannel prize.
The awards will take place on 21 January at the O2 in London.
Acting stars Dame Maggie Smith, Benedict Cumberbatch, Sarah Lancashire and Sheridan Smith are up for best drama performance for their roles in Downton Abbey, Sherlock, Happy Valley and Cilla respectively.
Downton, Sherlock and Cilla also go head-to-head for best drama, alongside Doctor Who.
NTA favourites Ant and Dec are nominated in the entertainment category for Saturday Night Takeway and I'm a Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here!, along with Through the Keyhole and Celebrity Big Brother.
Gogglebox is among the runners for best factual show, while X Factor, Strictly Come Dancing, The Voice UK and Britain's Got Talent will do battle for best talent show.
Ratings hit Mrs Brown's Boys takes on Benidorm, Outnumbered and The Big Bang Theory in the coveted comedy category.
Dermot O'Leary will present the awards live on ITV.
Last year's winners included Doctor Who, Coronation Street and Paul O'Grady: For the Love of Dogs.
The NTAs are voted for by the public.


Great Britain will take a strong team, that includes the four crews who won World Cup gold last weekend, to the European Championships later in May.

The men's four, men's and women's pair and lightweight men's double sculls who triumphed in Serbia will return in Racice, Czech Republic, from 26-28 May.
A total of 50 rowers make up the squad.
"We're excited to be moving on to challenge the best crews in Europe," said British Rowing performance director Sir David Tanner.
"We have a good record in recent European Rowing Championships and I'm confident that the athletes selected will continue this tradition."
Karen Bennett and Holly Norton won the women's pair while Jacob Dawson and Matthew Rossiter triumphed in the men's pair at the first World Cup of the season in Belgrade last weekend.
Peter Chambers and Will Fletcher won the men's double sculls, while Callum McBrierty, Matthew Tarrant, Mohamed Sbihi and William Satch were victorious in the men's four.
In total Britain secured 11 medals, including three silvers and four bronzes.
Women's eight: Caragh McMurtry, Rebecca Chin, Annie Withers, Sara Parfett, Rebecca Shorten, Jo Wratten, Fiona Gammond, Katherine Douglas, Erin Wysocki-Jones (cox)
Women's pair: Karen Bennett, Holly Norton
Women's quadruple scull: Mathilda Hodgkins-Byrne, Beth Bryan, Holly Nixon, Jessica Leyden
Women's double scull: Georgia Francis, Emily Carmichael
Womne's single scull: Victoria Thornley
Women's reserves: Alice Baatz, Rebecca Girling, Anastasia Chitty
Women's lightweight double scull: Charlotte Booth, Katherine Copeland
Men's eight: Lance Tredell, Thomas Jeffery, Sam Arnot, Cameron Buchan, Tom Ransley, Adam Neill, James Rudkin, Tom Ford, Henry Fieldman (cox)
Men's four: Callum McBrierty, Matthew Tarrant, Mohamed Sbihi, Will Satch
Men's pair: Jacob Dawson, Matt Rossiter
Men's quadruple scull: Jack Beaumont, John Collins, Peter Lambert, Jonny Walton
Men's double scull: Tom Barras, Frazier Christie
Men's reserve: Tim Clarke
Men's lightweight double scull: Peter Chambers, Will Fletcher,
Men's lightweight pair: Joel Cassells, Sam Scrimgeour


Libya's UN-backed Presidential Council, based in Tunis, has called on the international community to stop dealing with any rival powers within Libya.

The council nominated a unity government last month, but recognition of the cabinet has been delayed.
Libya has had two competing governments since 2014, following the downfall of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.
The eastern House of Representatives (HOR), based in Tobruk, has failed to vote to approve the unity government.
The council said in a statement on Saturday that a document signed by a majority of the HOR's members backing the new government, as well as the endorsement by the Political Dialogue Team, represented a "green light to start work".
However, on Thursday, a statement by Libya's Political Dialogue Team - composed of members of political figures in Libya and some MPs representing the country's two rival parliaments- did not appear to pave the way for this move.
It called for a speedy parliamentary vote on the proposed government, the BBC's Rana Jawad in Tunis notes.
The Presidential Council is tasked with organising a transition of power to end the political chaos and armed conflict that has plagued Libya since Gaddafi's downfall.
But the Tunis-based council has faced stiff opposition from hardliners in both the HOR, which has received international recognition, and in a rival parliament in the capital, Tripoli.
The political and security vacuum in the country has helped the so-called Islamic State group to establish a foothold in the north African country, carrying out attacks on cities and against oil installations.
The council was formed with the signing of a UN-brokered political agreement in December.
Its first proposal in January was marred by divisions over who would occupy senior security posts and was rejected.
Its members are still working outside Libya because rival factions in the capital, Tripoli, and their militia backers, remain opposed to the political agreement.


Wales have confirmed they will face the Netherlands next month in their first Euro 2016 warm-up match.

The friendly against Danny Blind's side will take place at Cardiff City Stadium on Friday, 13 November.
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While Wales ended their 57-year wait to qualify for a major tournament, the Netherlands failed to reach the Euro 2016 finals in France next summer.
BBC Wales will broadcast the match live on television, radio and online.
Wales lost 2-0 when they last faced the Netherlands in a friendly in Amsterdam prior to the 2014 World Cup.
"We produced an excellent display when we last met the Netherlands," Wales manager Chris Coleman said.
"We look forward to welcoming the Dutch to Cardiff for what I'm sure will prove to be a valuable and entertaining match as we begin preparations for Euro 2016 in France."


The UK government borrowed £107.7bn in the financial year to April 2014, lower than the £115.1bn amount it borrowed the previous year.

In the Budget, the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) had estimated a deficit for the full year of £107.8bn.
The government wants to eliminate the budget deficit by 2017-18.
Borrowing in March fell to £6.7bn from £11.4bn a year earlier, excluding financial interventions, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said.
Meanwhile, the figure for February was revised down from £9.3bn to £8.8bn.
By Hugh PymChief economics correspondent, BBC News
The sigh of relief at the Treasury was almost audible.
The first estimate of the amount the Government borrowed for the full 2013-14 financial year has come in at £107.7bn, a little below the figure predicted by the Office for Budget Responsibility at the time of the Budget in March.
This time last year, it was a lot tighter, with early estimates showing government borrowing, subsequently revised down, coming in above forecast and even above the previous year's deficit number.
Tax receipts for March look more robust than most analysts had expected.
The latest borrowing figure could yet be revised, but right now it looks better than it might have been for the Chancellor, George Osborne.
And yet, a deficit of more than £107bn still involves a lot of red ink in the public finances.
The Treasury points out that it shows the size of the challenge, with government debt, more than £1.2 trillion, remaining the third largest of the G7 advanced economies.
The annual figure is the first provisional estimate of the financial year, and will be revised as more data becomes available.
It excludes the effects of both the transfer of the Royal Mail pension scheme to the government, and gains from the Bank of England's asset purchases for quantitative easing (QE).
The UK's public sector net debt, excluding financial interventions, is now £1,268.7bn, equivalent to 75.8% of GDP.  This compares with a figure of £1,185.2bn, or 74.2% of GDP, at the end of March 2013.
£1,185.2 billion (74.2% of GDP) at the end of March 2013.
The OBR has forecast that the ratio will peak at close to 79% in 2015-16.
BBC chief economics correspondent Hugh Pym says tax receipts for March look more robust than most analysts had expected.
He adds that the latest borrowing figure could yet be revised, but right now it looks better than it might have been for the Chancellor, George Osborne.
Howard Archer, chief economist at analysts Global Insight, said Mr Osborne had been "helped enormously by the March shortfall being limited to £6.7bn".
"While in reality, it made little difference whether the chancellor just hit or just missed his fiscal target for 2013-14, the fact that he did make it provides a psychological boost for the government and it may support belief that he can hit his longer-term targets," said Mr Archer.
"Nevertheless, a deficit of £107.7bn in 2013-14 highlights the fact that here is still an awfully long way to go in getting the public finances into decent shape."
David Kern, chief economist at the British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), said the figures showed that gradual progress has been made over the past year in stabilising public finances.
"However, bringing down our budget deficit remains a difficult task. Since the financial crisis, we have seen falls in oil and gas output and weaknesses in the financial sector," he added.
"These structural changes have reduced the country's ability to generate tax revenues, and future public spending must factor in these challenges.
"Although progress may be gradual, reducing our public sector debt is necessary, as it will help businesses drive the recovery, and create jobs and wealth."


Prime Minister Theresa May very visibly tried to laugh off Jeremy Corbyn's questions about a Surrey council tax deal at Prime Minister's Questions.

8 March 2017 Last updated at 13:04 GMT
It comes after a leaked recording of council leader David Hodge saying he struck a deal with the government before scrapping a 15% council tax hike was obtained by the BBC.
On the recording, Mr Hodge said he had written government assurances and recordings of talks.
But a government spokesman said "there was no special deal".


Hundreds of people have been queuing at Manchester tattoo parlours to get bee inkings in a show of solidarity after Monday's terrorist attack in the city.

One city centre tattoo studio was faced with 800 potential customers on Friday.
The Manchester Tattoo Appeal was launched by Stalybridge-based tattoo artist Sam Barber, with those taking part donating Â£50 to help the families of those killed or injured.
Tattoo parlours across the UK are now taking part.
Manchester is adorned with the bee emblem, which is a legacy of the city's textile industry.
The tattoo appeal was announced shortly after the suicide bomber attack at Manchester Arena on Monday, which left 22 people dead.
Molly Rylance, who was at the concert during the attack, was one of the first to get a bee tattoo.
She said: "I just thought I wanted it to remember - not what happened - but kind of how resilient we are as a community and just how everyone stood together and said that it's not going to break us."
Tattoo artist Sam Barber said people were using it as a "symbol of strength".
"We've actually got a lot of family members of some of the victims coming forward who want it as a memorial tattoo now," she said.
"Paramedics and health workers who were on the scene, who were there in the aftermath - who also want to come together and get that tattoo done. "
Holier Than Thou, in Oldham Street, said 800 people turned up for a bee tattoo but most had to be turned away for the day due to the demand.
Danielle Kosky, 22, who managed to get a bee tattoo, said: "It's a nice way of showing support for the victims, their families and to remember them forever - not just now.
"I didn't know how else to offer my support. Facebook and Instagram are good, but this will be on me forever, not just words that you see on a screen."


The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has confirmed that the Zika virus causes severe birth defects, including microcephaly.

Hundreds of babies were born in Brazil last year with microcephaly, a syndrome where children are born with unusually small heads.
The defects coincided with a spike in Zika infections, leading experts to suspect the mosquito-borne virus.
Research has now affirmed those experts' suspicions, the CDC said.
"This study marks a turning point in the Zika outbreak. It is now clear that the virus causes microcephaly," said Dr Tom Frieden, the head of the CDC.
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On Monday, US health officials warned the Zika outbreak could have more of an effect on the United States and called for additional funding to combat the virus.
"Everything we know about this virus seems to be scarier than we initially thought," said Dr Anne Schuchat of the CDC.
Zika virus was first diagnosed in 1947 in Uganda, but symptoms have typically been mild, including rash, joint pain and fever.
The current outbreak started in 2015 in Brazil and the symptoms have been much more severe.  Nearly 200 babies have died as result of the virus.
Researchers are interesting learning why some cases of the virus result in birth defects while others do not.
Some women who were infected with Zika while pregnant gave birth to apparently healthy children.
There have been 346 confirmed cases of Zika in the continental United States, according to the CDC, all associated with travel.
CDC officials said the findings do not change the agency's earlier guidance to pregnant women.
The CDC has discouraged pregnant women from travelling to places where the Zika virus is spreading, mostly in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Dr Frieden said intensive research was under way to find out much more about the mosquito-borne virus and to develop a vaccine for it, although he warned that that could still be years away.
This is the first time that mosquito bites have caused birth defects, Dr Frieden said. The virus can be transmitted by sexual contact as well.


Investigators are due to begin examining the wreckage of a crab boat which sank off the Western Isles last month with the loss of three fishermen.

The Stornoway-registered Louisa sank on 9 April as it lay at anchor in calm seas off Mingulay.
The bodies of two crew members were found. The skipper is still missing and presumed dead. A fourth man survived after swimming ashore.
The wreckage of the boat was brought to Clydebank by barge on Tuesday evening.
The Marine Accident Investigation Branch (MAIB) said it wanted to establish why water flooded into the boat and whether automatic alarms that should sound when a leak is detected were activated.
Investigators also want to discover why the Louisa's liferaft failed to release and then did not inflate.
The bodies of Chris Morrison, 27, from Harris, and Martin Johnstone, 29, from Halkirk, Caithness, were found following the sinking.
Skipper Paul Alliston, 42, from Lewis, remains missing despite a massive search.
Only Lachlann Armstrong, 27, from Stornoway, Lewis, survived after swimming ashore.


Maria Sharapova has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) after being banned from tennis for two years for using a prohibited drug.

Sharapova, who tested positive for meldonium at January's Australian Open, was last week suspended by the International Tennis Federation (ITF).
The 29-year-old, a five-time Grand Slam winner, said in her appeal her ban should be "eliminated" or reduced.
Cas said it would rule on the Russian's case by 18 July.
A statement from Sharapova's lawyer said the ITF's tribunal reflected the player "did not intend to violate the rules".
It added she was given an "unfairly harsh suspension because she is such a famous athlete and they wanted to make an example out of her".
Sharapova says she has been taking meldonium, a heart disease drug, since 2006 for health issues. It became a banned substance on 1 January 2016.
She has admitted she continued taking the substance past that date, saying she was unaware it had been added to the banned list as she knew it by another name - mildronate.
The ITF tribunal ruling said Sharapova tested positive for meldonium in an out-of-competition test on 2 February, as well as in the aftermath of her Australian Open quarter-final defeat by Serena Williams on 26 January.
It treated both results as a single anti-doping violation, with Sharapova's ban backdated to 26 January.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada) said it would "review the decision, including its reasoning" before deciding whether to appeal.
Aged 17, Sharapova became the first Russian to win Wimbledon, added the US Open in 2006 and the Australian Open in 2008, before completing a career Grand Slam with the French Open title in 2012.
She won the French Open again in 2014, but the 2018 tournament in Paris is the next major Sharapova can enter, unless her ban is reduced.
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Chancellor George Osborne has told soft drinks companies to "bring it on" over reports some are considering a legal challenge to the new sugar tax.

The tax on the soft drinks industry was announced in the Budget, and will take effect from 2018.
Mr Osborne said the policy was legal and the government would "robustly" defend it against any court challenge.
He said the tax was the "right" thing to do, would help to combat childhood obesity and had been widely welcomed.
Mr Osborne told the Treasury Select Committee many companies were already doing "the right thing" by reducing sugar in their products and urged others to follow suit.
Asked about reports that some companies were considering challenging the legality of the policy, he said: "I would say, if they want to have an argument about the sugar tax, bring it on.
"We are going to introduce a sugar tax, it's not a threat or a promise, it's the way it's going to be."
The chancellor said the government would consult on technical details of tax ahead of its introduction in 2018 - a date, he said, which had been chosen to allow firms time to adjust.
Firms should use that period to "reformulate" their products rather than "waste time and money" on a legal challenge to the tax, he added.
The sugar tax on soft drinks was a surprise announcement by the chancellor in his Budget statement on 16 March.
It will be levied on the volume of the sugar-sweetened drinks companies produce or import.
There will be two bands - one for total sugar content above 5 grams per 100 millilitres and a second, higher, band for the most sugary drinks with more than 8 grams per 100 millilitres, with the levels yet to be set.
The Â£530m it is expected to raise  - the equivalent of about 18-24p per litre, the government says - will be spent on primary school sports in England, with the devolved administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland free to decide how to spend their share.


A pensioner has been robbed at gunpoint in her home by three men in what police are calling a "cowardly and callous" attack.

The victim, in her 70s, was alone at her home in Lancaster Road, Enfield, when she answered the door.
She was confronted by three men, one holding a handgun, who pushed her inside and forced her to hand over £200 cash.
The three men were described as white and aged in their 30s or 40s.


At least 35 workers have been killed by a blast at a dairy factory in western Yemen, medics say, as Saudi-led air strikes continue against Houthi rebels.

There were conflicting reports about the cause of the overnight explosion in the Red Sea port city of Hudaydah.
Witnesses said coalition aircraft hit warehouses belonging to the factory. Anti-aircraft guns then returned fire, before the factory itself caught fire.
The UN has expressed alarm at the rising number of civilian casualties.
On Tuesday, the high commissioner for human rights warned that Yemen seemed to be "on the verge of total collapse".
The latest violence comes as dozens of Yemenis are reported to have crossed the Gulf of Aden in small boats to get to Somalia and Djibouti to escape the fighting and Saudi air strikes, the UN refugee agency has said.
The refugees braved a lengthy and dangerous journey after fleeing the city of Taez which was captured by Shia Houthi rebels last month and targeted by Saudi-led coalition airstrikes in recent days.
The arrival of the Yemeni refugees reverses a decades-old trend in which thousands of Somalis have sought sanctuary in Yemen to escape their own country's violence - more than 1,500 arrived last week alone.
A 10-nation coalition led by Saudi Arabia has been conducting air strikes on the Houthis and allied army units loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh for a week, with the stated aim of "defending the legitimate government" of President Abdrabbuh Mansour Hadi.
Mr Hadi fled abroad last week after the Zaidi Shia rebels advanced on the southern city of Aden, where he had taken refuge after the Houthis took full control of the capital Sanaa in January and placed him under house arrest.
Overnight, coalition aircraft targeted rebel positions in Hudaydah. Witnesses told the Associated Press that the factory caught fire after warplanes bombed nearby warehouses and rebel anti-aircraft batteries returned fire.
The blaze triggered explosions inside the factory that caused parts of the building to collapse with workers still inside, the witnesses said.
Two military officials told AP that the factory had been used by the rebels to store weapons, and that while the air strikes destroyed the warehouses, the factory was only partially destroyed. That suggested it might have been hit from the ground, they added.
The health authorities in Hudaydah province said at least 35 workers were killed, many of them crushed by rubble or burned to death.
Hudaydah's governor, Hassan al-Hai, said dozens of people were also wounded, but he did not say if the factory was hit by an air strike or shelling by the rebels.
The Saudi-led coalition also bombarded Houthi positions in Aden overnight. A military official told the AFP news agency that there were "many dead and wounded".
The coalition has insisted that it is trying to avoid killing civilians.
"Collateral damage can happen... but I confirm to you that the coalition takes all care," spokesman Brigadier General Ahmed Asiri was quoted as saying by AFP.
But on Tuesday Amnesty International accused Saudi Arabia and its allies of "turning a blind eye to civilian deaths", and the UN Children's Fund (Unicef) reported that at least 62 children had been killed and 30 hurt over the past week.
The Houthis have said their aim is to replace President Hadi's government, which they accuse of being corrupt. Their leader has refused to surrender to what he called the "unjustified aggression" by the coalition.
Regional Shia power Iran, which has denied accusations from Saudi Arabia that it is offering the rebels military assistance, has demanded an immediate halt to the air strikes.