Staffordshire IT company Synectics Solutions remain hopeful of buying Port Vale, despite having two bids rejected.

Vale owner Norman Smurthwaite, who stood down as chairman in the wake of relegation to League Two, confirmed that both offers had been turned down.
He also rejected a rival bid from Manor PC's Kevin Jones, saying: "I do not anticipate any further dialogue with either party with regard to the sale."
But Synectics insist that they are "as keen as ever" to buy the club.
Smurthwaite claimed that the Burslem-based company's second offer, if accepted, "could have had serious financial implications going forward for Port Vale".
But, in a statement of their own, Synectics said: "Our initial offer of £1.25m was based on the information we had at that time.
"Subsequently, Norman informed us that there were potential, additional short-term revenues which would increase the value of the club.
"In light of this information, we increased our offer subject to full disclosure prior to any deal being agreed. This increased offer did not impact our funding plans for running the club. It would not have caused serious financial implications as alleged.
"We are incredibly disappointed that we were unable to reach an agreement at this time. However, we remain as keen as ever to buy the club should the opportunity arise in the future."
Smurthwaite and ex-business partner Paul Wildes paid £1.25m when buying Vale out of administration in 2012.
Vale, who last week confirmed the appointment of Michael Brown as manager, were relegated on 30 April after four seasons in League One.
As part of Jones' rival offer, his father Alan would become chairman, while former Vale player and manager Brian Horton, 68, and ex-Tranmere and Rotherham manager Ronnie Moore, 64, would be brought in as directors of football.


Exeter City manager Paul Tisdale said he could not remember many performances as poor as the one by his side in his 500th game in charge of the club.

City lost 4-1 at home to Oxford United, their heaviest home loss since a 4-0 defeat to Huddersfield in October 2011 when the club was in League One.
"It was a pretty poor night. We had no real excuses for such a dismal performance," he told BBC Radio Devon.
"It was so poor in so many areas, it's hard to know where to start."
The result saw Exeter slip to 14th in League Two, having not won in their last four games, after a run of three wins in a row.
"We didn't look like a football side, we didn't pass the ball well enough, we didn't show for it, too many were shut down, it was just a generally dismal display," Tisdale added.
"I've not had as many as bad as that, but we just have to start again tomorrow and pick ourselves up."
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Four hundred former council staff in Wirral have been told to hand back lifetime leisure passes given to them as retirement gifts.

The council said it was withdrawing Passport for Life for employees who had 25 years service to save money.
Former employee Mike Garbett, 59, said the decision was "unfair" as he was using the gym to help his recovery from a brain injury.
The council said the decision is part of £28m budget savings due next month.
The cuts include removing concessions for people aged over 65 and swimming for under-18s in the school holidays.
Mr Garbett, opted for the free leisure pass as his farewell retirement gift instead of a cash payment or high street voucher after 34 years working on the authority's parks.
He said: "I thought with my health condition it was an ideal gift and it has greatly aided my recovery."
Mr Garbett, who has a brain condition, said: "First I was upset, now I am angry. How penny pinching and mean spirited.
"Morally I think they are wrong."
He added: "I doubt if they would have asked for the high street vouchers or the cash back - this was a gift for my long service."
Conservative councillor Chris Blakeley said it was outrageous that "some of the lowest-paid but longest-serving staff are now being told to return their retirement gift."
He added: "Can you imagine any other employer basically going into someone's living room and removing the pensioner's carriage clock?"
A council spokesman said removing free access to leisure centres for around 400 former council staff would help keep the centres financially viable.
"While we absolutely appreciate that this is disappointing for those people affected, we believe making these changes - which amount to in excess of £500,000 savings - will go a long way towards helping us retain a good leisure offer for Wirral residents."


The government is being accused of being "in full-scale retreat from their own manifesto" promises on education.

Labour's Angela Rayner's accusation comes after ministers said they were "reflecting" on the plan to scrap free lunches in favour of free breakfasts.
On funding, the schools minister said: "The government has committed to increase the school budget further."
But Nick Gibb failed to restate the election-campaign promise of an extra Â£1bn to bolster school budgets.
Shadow education secretary Ms Rayner and her team tabled more than 100 written parliamentary questions, asking about each education pledge in the Conservative manifesto.
Scrapping the free school meals currently offered to all infant pupils was to save the government Â£650m.
Also in the manifesto, the government pledged to introduce free breakfasts for all primary school children - but academics queried the costing and the likely take-up of the planned offer.
Responding to Ms Rayner's written question on the current state of the policy, Children's Minister Robert Goodwill wrote: "We are reflecting on our programmes in relation to school meals and will come forward with proposals in due course."
And, on Monday, responding to Mr Goodwill's written answer, Ms Rayner said: "The admission, slipped out in a written answer, that their flagship education policy may be abandoned before it is even launched is just the latest sign that Theresa May's ministers are now in full-scale retreat from their own manifesto.
"They need to end the confusion by explaining to the public and Parliament what their education policy actually is.
"If they still think they can snatch the food from our children's mouths, then we will fight them all of the way."
Responding to another of the written questions, on the manifesto commitment to review school admissions policy, the government said simply that it "routinely keep[s] the admissions system under review".
The latest parliamentary answers come after Education Secretary Justine Greening confirmed, in an earlier written statement, the government was abandoning its plans for a new wave of grammar schools.
It is thought the controversial policy was unlikely to get a majority in the House of Commons.
The Department for Education said: "This government is focused on delivering higher standards in education.
"In the last Parliament alone, three Acts were passed to deliver bold new reforms across technical education, our universities and children's social care.
"There are 1.8 million more children in good or outstanding schools than in 2010, and more young and disadvantaged people are going to university than ever before.
"As the Queen's Speech made clear, this work will continue to ensure every child has the opportunity to go as far as their talents will take them."


"We feel empowered by seeing women giving business advice, it feels real, it feels relatable," says Louie Tew, part of a team of three female designers who are in the midst of setting up their dream online wedding business, TH&TH.

"We have been spoken to in patronising tones when pitching ideas and explaining our business model. We have been met with the attitude that what we are doing should be treated as a hobby."
The team has worked in the fashion industry for more than a decade, but the first 10 months of their business venture has taken its toll.
"Two of us are new mothers," explains Louie Tew. "We've been changing nappies whilst on the line to Chinese banks, running our business from our smartphones, meeting with clients with newborns in arms."
Even though she thinks advice from male entrepreneurs can also be useful, she draws particular inspiration from hearing tales about how "specific gender pressures" have been overcome by women who have reached the top.
So do aspiring female entrepreneurs need - and successful female CEOs offer - a different kind of business advice?
It's a question we might be in a position to help answer.
For one year now we've been conducting an experiment in the BBC News Business unit.
We've been asking the CEOs who cross our paths a personal question: "What's the business advice you wish you had been given when you started out?"
One year on, we have collected 45 contributions in our CEO Secrets series.
A quarter of the bosses we've heard from are women.
By way of comparison, just less than 10% of chief executives at FTSE 100 companies in the UK are female. According to recent government statistics, 20% of small and medium-sized companies are female-led. In the world of business start-ups men consistently outnumber women by two-to-one.
So we decided to show our series to a selection of women who are currently running start-ups to find out who they find most inspiring.
Roxane Gergaud, co-founder of Doris & Dicky, a website for finding affordable, boutique hotels
I always find advice from women particularly inspiring as naturally I identify with them more. I have a greater curiosity in the motivations behind and the routes to female success and draw strength from other women's experiences.
There is a tendency for women to make it more personal, to overtly base their advice on their own experiences which, in turn, makes them feel more accessible as people and their advice more applicable.
I love working in the travel industry. But there are definitely moments when I've realised there are still quite a few corners that are a bit old-fashioned in their views.
I was at times sidelined in meetings by investors wanting to deal with my male co-founder, which was incredibly demoralising and frustrating.
I was often in the situation where I'd get to the end of the meeting and no-one had made eye contact with me.
So watching amazing women like Carolyn McCall, Harriet Green and Martha Lane-Fox, who are leaders in the travel sector, has given me huge strength and encouragement in times when I've felt a little on the back foot because of who I am.
Adrienne Hanna, CEO and co-founder of Right Revenue, a software start-up that helps hotels decide on pricing
I have worked in travel and hospitality for 30 years.
To be honest, I don't think getting the advice from a man or a woman makes any difference at all.  If you had taken away the pictures and just put that advice in text anonymously, I think it would have been almost impossible to distinguish.
I was a fan of [Brompton Bikes boss] Will Butler-Adams as I too find it difficult to listen to the "boardroom chat" and people talking for the sake of talking. Get things done - keep it simple and stay focused.
I perhaps am lucky in that I have never felt my sex has held me back in any way.  I have always felt an equal even though many, many times in my life I am the only woman in the boardroom.
I feel it comes down to mindset. If you go in feeling like an equal then that is how you will be perceived.
Lu Li set up Blooming Founders, a social network that aims to nurture and inspire women in the business start-up community
Gender definitely matters because people relate better to people who are like them. It gives you that feeling of "I can do it too". I don't have the same feeling when I listen to advice from Elon Musk or Richard Branson. I admire them as entrepreneurs, but I still think that their circumstances and my circumstances are just not the same.
I wholeheartedly agree with Lily Cole who advised to reach out for help. I made that mistake myself, thinking that asking for help would make me look weak. But actually the opposite is true: asking for help gives you power.
It is really interesting to see that the women featured in the series tend to talk more about the importance of self belief and having confidence, whereas the men tend to stress the importance of having the right team.
This is in line with the trends I see through my work: 66% of the Blooming Founders community are solo founders, which proves that they don't put much priority in recruiting a team when they start out. At the same time, I also see that confidence is a big issue amongst female entrepreneurs.
Many women are held back by fear of failure, social expectations and unease with financial instability.
Elizabeth Clark, CEO and founder of Dream Agility, an online shopping platform
Generally who the advice comes from doesn't matter, unless it's gender specific.
I discovered I was pregnant (with a 16-year gap after having my first two children) when I started my first business and my confidence was rock bottom.
I was told by a business adviser that I should think about doing something else as nobody would take me seriously as a woman doing tech. I was mortified as I had encountered attitudes like this 20 years ago when I was working in engineering but I thought people would be more enlightened.
I was knocked back by venture capitalists because I didn't have any experience in the area I was seeking investment - but neither would anyone else as it was completely new!
The recent video from the Mumsnet founder is the perfect example of this and it's inspirational to hear other people have overcome this kind of adversity and made a huge success.
Being female has its pros and cons.
Yes there are people that don't like dealing with a female CEO. I don't get upset about it any more. I just pass them on to a male colleague.
By the same token, I'm not above using my feminine charms to win over a customer - all above board of course, my husband is the chief technical officer!
You can watch all the videos from the #CEOSecrets series here. To go behind the scenes and keep up to date follow series producer Dougal Shaw on Twitter orFacebook.


West Ham striker Andy Carroll has told a court a gun-wielding motorbike rider tried to rob him of his Â£22,000 watch.

The footballer, who has nine England caps, told Basildon Crown Court he was returning home from training when he was chased by two motorcyclists.
He said one rider pulled alongside him at the traffic lights and demanded his watch. They followed him as he drove off, and one made gun signs at him.
Jack O'Brien, 22, denies attempting to rob the 28-year-old on 2 November 2016.
In a frantic 999 call played to the jury, the Premier League player said: "There's two motorbikes, one's behind me pulling out a gun, I don't know what to do."
As beeping is heard in the background, he swears and tells the operator: "I've hit loads of cars, I don't know what to do, he's just hit my car."
He eventually arrived at the West Ham training ground where he told the operator there were security staff there.
"I've probably just hit about 10 cars on the way here," he said in the call.
The court heard the bikers had approached Mr Carroll at traffic lights on Romford Road in Hainault, north-east London.
The player told the jury: "I just pulled up at the traffic lights, my window was open, a bike pulled up next to me and said 'Nice watch'."
He said he replied "thanks" and thought he recognised the man on the motorbike.
"He had his crash helmet on with his visor up," he said.
"I stared at him for about 10 seconds as I thought I recognised him and thought he was going to have a conversation."
He continued: "I went to drive away and he said 'Give me your watch'."
Mr Carroll said he was not sure if it was a joke, but when he did a U-turn, both riders turned and followed him.
The footballer added: "I was scared, I didn't know what to do.  "I called my partner's dad, I just panicked.
"He told me to ring the police."
Prosecutor Simon Gladwell said the footballer was "beeping at other cars and driving on the wrong side of the road to get away".
Mr Gladwell said the motorbike rider "repeatedly pointed at him with a gun," or pretended to have a gun and demanded to have his client's watch.
Forensic scientist Luan Lunt told the court that DNA found on a crash helmet and Ducati motorbike jacket linked to the incident matched Mr O'Brien's.
The chances of that DNA originating from anyone else was "one-in-a-billion", she estimated.
During cross examination, she said she could not give a specific time or date as to when the DNA was left on the items.
Michael Edmonds, defending, said Mr O'Brien, of Navarre Gardens, Romford, east London, was not the motorbike rider.
He said the defendant had used the bike, jacket and helmet for crime before, but it was not him using the motorbike on this occasion.
The trial continues.


Kieran Tierney is prepared to continue as Scotland's auxiliary right-back after coming through a high-stakes experiment with flying colours.

The Celtic left-back was handed the role in Scotland's crucial World Cup qualifier against Slovenia.
And Tierney could continue there against England at Hampden on 10 June.
"It's up to the gaffer, whatever he thinks is best and whatever he thinks the team that is going to give us the best chance of winning," said Tierney.
Scotland had been left short at right-back after Alan Hutton retired from international football and Callum Paterson suffered cruciate ligament damage.
Derby County winger Ikechi Anya had impressed at right-back against England and Canada.
But, as Hull City's Andy Robertson revealed after the 1-0 win over Slovenia, head coach Gordon Strachan decided to move one of his three left-backs over to the left.
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Rangers' Lee Wallace missed out through injury, Robertson was chosen on the left and Strachan showed his faith in 19-year-old Tierney for a debut in the right-back role.
"I have been training there all week, so I had a feeling I'd be playing there," said Tierney, who was winning his third Scotland cap.
"The manager and the coaching staff have been giving me pointers. I enjoyed it."
Strachan said before the game that his side needed three points to retain hopes of qualifying for the 2018 finals in Russia.
Instead, the victory moved the Scots two points off second-top Slovakia and gave them a fighting chance of making a play-off.
It was a big occasion for Tierney's Celtic team-mate, Stuart Armstrong, to win his first cap and the midfielder responded by setting up Chris Martin's 88th-minute winning goal four days before his 25th birthday.
Asked about his role in the winner, the former Dundee United player said: "It feels good, but what feels better is to have contributed in a positive way to three points, which we needed to put us in a very good position in the group," he said.
"Kech [Ikechi Anya] has made a really good run on the outside just to drag that defender and Chris has held a really good position in the box and has done brilliantly to turn and finish."
Armstrong also collected the man-of-the-match award, while Strachan declared it the best Scotland debut he could remember.
Clutching his cap, he said: "It's a proud moment to hold this.
"It's a proud moment for my family. To cap that off with three points is great."
Strachan was widely expected to quit as team boss had they failed to win, but Armstrong thought the side responded well to such pressure.
"We had trained well all week, there was a good atmosphere, and it's important sometimes to stay positive when things aren't going the way you want them to," he said.
"And I think we responded really well."


A dinosaur mural on the side of a Bristol pub has been mistakenly painted over by workmen.

The work, on a wall of the Oxford pub in Totterdown is one of street artist Andy Council's trademark creations, that mix dinosaurs with architecture.
It was painted on the pub in November as part of an arts trail.
Mr Council said the dinosaur would "be making an appearance again" and he may paint the whole pub rather than just one wall.
"When I heard it had been painted over I thought it was funny because it was an accident and you do come to expect it," he said.
Landlord of the Oxford, Jon Evans, said regulars set up a crowd-funding campaign dubbed 'Get Me Another Dinosaur' to pay Mr Council to redo the mural.
Mr Council has also painted murals at the Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and has a model in the Bristol M Shed museum.


Glasgow City midfielder Erin Cuthbert is called up for the first time for Scotland's Euro 2017 qualifiers against Iceland and Belarus.

Manchester City defender Jennifer Beattie is poised to win her 100th cap on returning from injury.
Celtic midfielder Christie Murray and goalkeeper Lee Alexander are also back in head coach Anna Signeul's squad.
Having won their opening five matches, Scotland could book their place in the Netherlands with two victories.
Iceland also boast a 100% record in Group 1, having played a game less.
Scotland take on Iceland at the Falkirk Stadium on 3 June, with a visit to Minsk four days later.
Seattle Reign playmaker Kim Little, recently nominated for the BBC Women's Footballer of the Year award, is one of five players in the squad with more than a century of caps.
Arsenal defender Emma Mitchell was a Women's FA Cup winner at the weekend, with striker Lisa Evans enjoying a Bundesliga-winning season with Bayern Munich.
Scotland squad:
Goalkeepers: Gemma Fay (Glasgow City), Lee Alexander (Mallbakens IF), Shannon Lynn (Vittsjo).
Defenders: Jennifer Beattie (Manchester City), Rachel Corsie (Seattle Reign), Ifeoma Dieke  (Vittsjo), Emma Mitchell (Arsenal), Joelle Murray (Hibernian), Kirsty Smith (Hibernian).
Midfielders: Leanne Crichton (Notts County), Erin Cuthbert (Glasgow City), Kim Little (Seattle Reign), Joanne Love (Glasgow City), Christie Murray (Celtic), Leanne Ross (Glasgow City), Caroline Weir (Liverpool).
Forwards: Lizzie Arnot (Hibernian), Lisa Evans (Bayern Munich), Zoe Ness (Mallbakens IF), Jane Ross (Manchester City)


Fox News' most popular show is facing an exodus of advertisers because of sexual harassment claims against its host, Bill O'Reilly.

Mercedes-Benz and BMW are among 22 brands that have pulled commercials following the "disturbing" allegations.
The New York Times reported on Saturday that settlements of $13m (Â£10.4m) were reached with five women who accused him of inappropriate behaviour.
With four million viewers a night, the O'Reilly show is a ratings juggernaut.
Paul Rittenberg, the head of Fox advertising sales, said: "We value our partners and are working with them to address their current concerns about the O'Reilly Factor.
"At this time, the ad buys of those clients have been re-expressed into other Fox News Channel programs."
On Tuesday night, an advert for Coldwell Banker ran, but the real estate company tweeted afterwards: "We were disappointed that our ad ran on O'Reilly as it wasn't part of our intentional media programming. We pulled future ads from the show."
The other companies are GlaxoSmithKline, Hyundai, Constant Contact, UNTUCKit, Sanofi, Allstate, Ainsworth Pet Nutrition/Rachael Ray Nutrish, T. Rowe Price, Mitsubishi, Wayfair, MileIQ, Lexus, Bayer, Esurance, Credit Karma, True Car, The Wonderful Company, Society of Human Resources Management and Orkin.
"As a company in which more than two-thirds of our employees are women, we take sexual harassment claims very seriously," UNTUCKit chief executive Aaron Sanandres said in a statement to the BBC.
Hyundai said it would remove forthcoming ads from The O'Reilly Factor because of the "recent and disturbing allegations".
Mercedes-Benz said it would instead run advertising elsewhere on the 21st Century Fox-owned outlet.
One of Mr O'Reilly's accusers is Wendy Walsh, a psychologist who was once a regular guest on The O'Reilly Factor.
She accused the host of withdrawing a job offer after she declined his invitation to go with him to his hotel suite after a dinner in 2013.
Ms Walsh told CNN on Monday night: "I want to be clear, I'm not after money. I just want a non-toxic work environment for my daughters and their generation."
Her lawyer, Lisa Bloom, said Fox News was the "Bill Cosby of corporate America", in reference to the TV entertainer who is facing multiple sex assault claims.
The president of the National Organization for Women, Terry O'Neill, called for Mr O'Reilly's dismissal.
"Women have the right to go to work without facing harassment. Fox News apparently doesn't get that basic concept," she said.
In a statement over the weekend, 21st Century Fox stood by Mr O'Reilly while adding that it "takes matters of workplace behaviour very seriously".
In a separate development, a Fox News contributor sued on Monday, alleging sexual harassment by its ousted former chairman, Roger Ailes.
Julie Roginsky said she was denied a job after rebuffing sexual advances by Mr Ailes, who founded Rupert Murdoch's TV network.
The legal action, filed in New York, states that Mr Ailes had "volunteered the advice that Roginsky should engage in sexual relationships with 'older, married, conservative men' because 'they may stray but they always come back because they're loyal'".
"Ailes also remarked that he was loyal but that loyalty was a two-way street.
"These comments and their delivery made it clear that Ailes wanted a sexual relationship with Roginsky."
Susan Estrich, a lawyer for Mr Ailes, said Ms Roginsky's allegations were "total hogwash".
In September, Fox News settled with former on-air host Gretchen Carlson for a reported $20m after she alleged she had also been sexually harassed by Mr Ailes.
The network apologised to Ms Carlson for her treatment.


Ulster pulled off a magnificent win over holders Leinster to stay on course for a home semi-final in the Pro12.

Lock Iain Henderson and winger Craig Gilroy scored the tries for the win which effectively ends any hope Leinster had of making the play-offs.
Leinster had made a superb start with a Ben Te'o try helping them go 10-0 up in the seventh minute.
But they did not score again and Ulster went on to beat their Irish rivals for the first time in four attempts.
The result puts Ulster at the top of the table, at least overnight, and means Leinster's season is effectively over.
It had all started so well for Leinster as they pushed deep into Ulster territory and benefitted from an early penalty strike from Jimmy Gopperth.
After six minutes, things got even better for the visitors as they sought to rescue their already fragile-looking play-off hopes, when Te'o smashed through some weak tackling to score. Gopperth added the extras and Leinster were 10-0 up and looking comfortable.
Ulster needed to respond and they got over the line with Henderson. Ruan Pienaar converted his 12th-minute effort and then added a penalty shortly afterwards to tie the scores.
There then followed a moment of controversy after Henderson was tip-tackled by Sean O'Brien with referee John Lacey and the television match official opting for a yellow card for the Ireland flanker instead of the red one the home crowed were baying for.
Ulster, though, failed to score during O'Brien's absence, but did take the lead just before half-time through another Pienaar penalty.
Midway through the second half, Rob Kearney was sin-binned, giving Pienaar a 63rd-minute penalty which he duly slotted to stretch the lead to 16-10.
Three minutes later the South African nailed a monster effort from just inside Leinster's half and the home side now had a nine-point lead.
Leinster's dismal night was completed with eight minutes remaining when a huge Ulster power play off a scrum on Leinster's line ultimately saw Gilroy dance through for his 11th Pro12 try of the season.
Pienaar converted to make it 26-10 and the game ended with 14-man Ulster - replacement prop Andy Warwick had been binned - defending their line as if their lives depended on it.
Ulster: L Ludik; T Bowe, J Payne, D Cave, C Gilroy; P Jackson, R Pienaar; C Black, R Best (capt), W Herbst, D Tuohy, F Van der Merwe, I Henderson, C Henry, R Wilson.
Replacements: McCloskey for D. Cave (51), Warwick for Black (70), B. Ross for Herbst (70), Diack for Tuohy (65).
Not used: Herring, C. Ross, P. Marshall, Humphreys.
Sin bin: Warwick (78).
Leinster: R Kearney; Z Kirchner, B Te'o, G D'Arcy, L Fitzgerald; J Gopperth, I Boss; C Healy, R Strauss, M Ross, D Toner, M McCarthy, S O'Brien, D Ryan, J Heaslip (capt).
Replacements: Madigan for D'Arcy (63), Reddan for Boss (67), J. McGrath for Healy (58), Cronin for Strauss (58), Furlong for Ross (63), J. Murphy for Ryan (51).
Not used: Marshall, Fanning.
Sin bin: O'Brien (21), R. Kearney (64).
Att: 17,097
Ref: John Lacey (Ireland).


England's Charley Hull carded a round of 72 and is four shots off the lead after two rounds at the first women's major of the year in California.

Hull was one of 52 players who had to finish round one of the ANA Inspiration at Rancho Mirage on Friday after high winds felled trees on the course.
She completed a 68 but then bogeyed two of her last four second-round holes.
America's Lexi Thompson leads at eight under par after a five-under 67 second round.
Hull, 21, the world number 16 who was runner-up to Lydia Ko in this event last year, reached six under but dropped shots at the par-four 15th and the closing par-five 18th.
Compatriot Mel Reid, who had a mixed opening round of 72 including three birdies and a double bogey, is level-par at the halfway stage after another 72.
Scotland's Catriona Matthew missed the cut after a 72 containing an eagle and a double bogey kept her at three over, while England's Jodi Ewart Shadoff also missed out after she carded a seven-over-par 79 to finish eight over.


More than 10,000 Islamic State fighters have been killed since an international coalition began a campaign against the group in Iraq and Syria, the US says.

Deputy Secretary of State Antony Blinken told France Inter radio the coalition had seen "a lot of losses" within IS in the past nine months.
"It will end up having an impact," he added, but warned IS remained resilient and capable of taking the initiative.
He spoke after the coalition met in Paris to discuss its strategy in Iraq.
Representatives backed Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's plan to retake the city of Ramadi, whose capture by IS last month he described as a "failure" for the international community.
They also called for the "speedy launch" of efforts to end the conflict in Syria.
In his interview with France Inter on Wednesday, Mr Blinken insisted that the coalition campaign had not been a failure.
"There has been important progress, but equally Daesh remains very resilient and capable of taking the initiative," he said, using a pejorative term for the group based on the Arabic acronym of its former name.
Mr Blinken said IS now controlled 25% less territory in Iraq than it did when coalition air strikes began in August 2014, and that it had lost significant numbers of men and materiel.
But he also acknowledged recent setbacks, including the loss of Ramadi, where Iraqi soldiers fled their positions despite vastly outnumbering the IS force attacking them.
"At the start of this campaign [we] said it would take time," he said. "We have conceived a three-year plan and we're nine months into it."
Mr Blinken's assertion that more than 10,000 IS fighters had been killed could not be independently verified.
The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported at the end of April that coalition air strikes in Syria had left more than 1,922 IS fighters dead, along with 66 civilians.
In February, the US Director for National Intelligence James Clapper told Congress that IS could muster "somewhere in the range between 20,000 and 32,000 fighters", but that there had been "substantial attrition" in its ranks.
Separately on Wednesday, the Iraqi ambassador to France, Fareed Yasseen, welcomed the US decision to send 2,000 AT-4 missiles for use against armoured suicide truck bombs, which helped weaken and demoralise government forces in Ramadi.
"The French will be giving us similar weapons, ammunition and we are discussing other co-operation projects," he told Europe 1 radio.
On Tuesday, explosives-laden armoured vehicles were used in four suicide attacks in south-west of Baiji in Salahuddin province which targeted security forces personnel and members of the Popular Mobilisation, a volunteer force of mostly Shia militias, a security source told the BBC.
The source said 28 militiamen were killed and 36 others wounded in the bombings.
On Tuesday, Iraq's prime minister urged the coalition to give his government more support, including by allowing it to obtain weapons from sanctions-hit Iran and Russia.
"Armament and ammunition, we haven't seen much. Almost none. We're relying on ourselves, but fighting is very hard this way,'' Mr Abadi told reporters before the Paris meeting.


Lionel Messi became Argentina's leading scorer with a superb free-kick as they beat hosts the USA 4-0 to reach Sunday's Copa America final.

The Barcelona forward, 28, passed Gabriel Batistuta's 54-goal tally with a 25-yard strike.
Messi provided the assist for Ezequiel Lavezzi's opener, then scored his stunner before Napoli's Gonzalo Higuain fired in to make it 3-0.
Higuain scored with a tap-in in the 85th minute to complete the rout.
Find out how to get into football with our special guide.
"I am happy to have surpassed Batistuta's record and I want to thank my team-mates, it's theirs as well," said Messi, who turns 29 on Friday.
Hebei China Fortune winger Lavezzi will miss Sunday's final, against Colombia or reigning champions Chile, because he fractured his left elbow after tumbling over the advertising boards.
The incident happened in the second half when the former Paris St-Germain player fell over backwards, trying to control a pass with his chest.
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Newport Gwent Dragons captain Lewis Evans has committed to the region by signing a new contract.

Evans, 29, made his debut in 2006 and has played 195 games for the Dragons.
The back-rower is the sixth Dragons player to extend his contract alongside Hallam Amos, Rynard Landman, Brok Harris, Nic Cudd and Ed Jackson.
"It's a place I have called home for over 10 years and it looks like I'll be spending my whole career here," said Evans.


A man who paid for a stranger's Valentine's gifts has said he does not want the money back but wants him to pass on the act of kindness instead.

The good Samaritan, who wants to remain anonymous, was queuing behind Ben Lodge when his debit cards were declined at a Lidl supermarket in Redruth, Cornwall.
Mr Lodge was buying flowers, chocolates and steak on Valentine's Day for wife Louise - the bill came to nearly Â£20.
After being traced through a friend and the media, the man declined repayment.
The generous gesture came during Random Acts of Kindness Week and the hashtag #RandomActsOfKindness has been trending on social media in the UK on Friday.
Read more on Valentine's Samaritan and other Cornwall and Devon stories
Mr Lodge, 31, said he left the shop without getting the man's name or phone number.
He said: "I was in such a state of shock at the time that I forgot to ask his name. I was just very thankful and left the shop in surprise."
The recipient of the good deed used social media to tell the story and try to trace him and spoke to BBC Radio Cornwall who helped him track the man down via Facebook.
"He didn't get in touch directly, just through a friend," Mr Lodge said.
"Apparently he is very humble and just wishes we pass the act along some day."
Louise Lodge commented on Facebook: "This is my husband it happened to and we really do wish to thank the man and pay him back.
We will definitely keep the kind hearted gesture going and pay it forward wherever we can."


Manager Grant McCann has apologised to the fans for Peterborough United's 4-1 home defeat by fellow League One play-off hopefuls Southend United.

Victory lifted the Shrimpers up to fifth, while Posh have only won six of their 17 home league games this term.
"If you don't believe you're going to get there [to the play-offs] you never will. My belief won't stop until it's mathematically impossible," he said.
"We're five points off the play-offs. It's not a lot with 13 games to go."
He continued to BBC Radio Cambridgeshire: "I know we've just been thrashed at home, but we need to continue to support each other. All I can do is apologise to the fans after the performance.
"I always take the blame when we lose and I'll do it again now. It's down to me why the team lost. What we've got to do now is stand up like men, puff our chests out, come back on Saturday and produce a win."
Two goals from Marc-Antoine Fortune set the Shrimpers on their way to victory at the ABAX Stadium, while Tom Nichols scored the only goal for ninth-placed Posh.
However, McCann has received positive news regarding Gwion Edwards' knee injury, picked up in Saturday's defeat by Walsall.
"It'll be seven or eight weeks instead of seven or eight months. We feared the worst to be honest, but we got the good news it's not too serious.
"He's been top drawer this season, he's got a great attitude and he's a tough little cookie."


India's restive Jammu and Kashmir state is again facing crisis following the death of chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on 7 January.

His daughter and heir apparent Mehbooba Mufti has so far declined to take oath as his successor, pushing the state under federal rule.
Mr Sayeed was heading a tricky coalition with India's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) - one he stitched together following intense back-door and open negotiations.
In the 2014 state assembly elections, the BJP won 25 seats in the Hindu-dominated Jammu, while Mr Sayeed's Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) won 28 in the predominantly Muslim Kashmir.
The BJP is perceived as being anti-Muslim by a majority of Kashmiris, and in stitching together the coalition, the PDP ran the real risk of alienating its vote bank.
However, Mr Sayeed justified the alliance, saying he wished to reconnect the religiously divergent regions of Jammu and Kashmir. "I cannot contribute to further dividing the state on communal lines," he told me last year.
At the time, Mr Sayeed not only chose to ignore the popular perception that joining hands with the BJP would open Kashmir to the Hindu nationalist RSS, he went the extra mile by praising Prime Minister Narendra Modi and terming him "not at all communal".
He assured the people of Kashmir that the coalition would deliver its promises, listed out in a document called "The Agenda of Alliance".
However, 10 months of the PDP-BJP rule has not yielded much.
A compensation package to help people affected by the devastating floods of September 2014 was delayed until November 2015 and, when it finally did come, it was not enough.
Apart from a package for Kashmiri Pandits - Kashmiri Hindus who were forced out of the region in the 1990s - and another for refugees from Pakistan-administered Kashmir, all other issues in the document have been ignored.
Although PDP leader Naeem Akhtar has called the document "sacrosanct", the BJP does not seem to regard it that way.
Party members have even gone so far as to challenge Article 35A of the Indian constitution, which bestows special identity on Indian-administered Kashmir - although the document vows to preserve it. They have also made several contentious statements on Article 370 which gives Kashmir autonomous status.
Given that this is the "baggage" Ms Mufti will have to deal with when she steps into her father's shoes, she is in a serious dilemma.
Insiders believe Ms Mufti - a vocal opposition leader so far - will always be restless while her party is in power. They say that she was against the alliance with the BJP, but could not express her opposition because of her father.
Today the party has authorised her to decide the future of the alliance.
The fact that her father was "not treated well" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP in the last 10 months weighs heavily on Ms Mufti.
Although the PDP managed a huge public meeting for Mr Modi in Srinagar in November, he publicly snubbed Mr Sayeed by saying that he didn't need advice on Pakistan. A strong advocate of reconciliation with Pakistan, Mr Sayeed had repeatedly pleaded with Mr Modi - in his speech - to mend fences.
By delaying assuming charge of the state, Ms Mufti has changed the history of transitions on such occasions.
For instance, when then Kashmir chief minister Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah died on 8 September 1982, the baton was passed on to his son Farooq Abdullah the same evening.
Rajiv Gandhi succeeded his mother Indira as India's prime minister the day she was assassinated.
Ms Mufti, however, despite knowing that she was her father's successor, asked his staff to report back to the federal government and sent back a cavalcade assigned to the chief minister.
This delay has made the BJP nervous.
This is the first time it has ever ruled in Kashmir, and it cannot afford to be out of power given that its position in Jammu has weakened in the past few months.
But can the PDP drop the BJP?
Analysts say the PDP's options are limited - even if it joined hands with the Congress party (which has 12 seats) and a few independent candidates, such a coalition would be vulnerable, given the state's dependence on the federal government.
Other PDP members have hinted at continuing the alliance and Ms Mufti too has said that she supported her father's decisions.
"I will take my own time. The Agenda of Alliance is there but I will make sure that I am able to fulfil Mufti Sahab's dreams, especially his dreams about political issues and development," she was quoted as saying.
"I don't mind if I get consumed in it for the welfare of the people and also for the essence of the agenda."
While it is not clear yet whether Ms Mufti will stick to the Agenda of Alliance with "more commitments" from Delhi, the political future of the state is uncertain.
But to be in power is the compulsion for both PDP and BJP, which are fast losing ground in their respective constituencies.


Football Association plans to boost the diversity of its leadership are "wishy washy" and "won't make any difference", says a leading equality campaigner.

The FA announced the proposed reforms after criticism over the way it is run.
They include more women being added to its board and 11 new members joining the FA Council to "better reflect" the diversity of English football.
However, Lord Ouseley, chairman of diversity campaign group Kick It Out, says the changes are "superficial".
A former chairperson of the Commission for Racial Equality and a current Institute of Race Relations council member, Lord Ouseley told BBC Radio 5 live: "It won't add any additional power and involvement in leadership roles for black and minority ethnic people.
"In fact, there's no representation for disabled people, LGBT communities - it's very superficial.
"While it will look good and it is to be welcomed as some change, it won't make any difference about where the power is, where the control is, and quite frankly it's a bit wishy washy."
In December, five former FA bosses asked the government to intervene and change an organisation they described as being held back by "elderly white men".
In February, MPs warned they could legislate to force the FA to reform if they had "no confidence" that the organisation would do so itself.
Sports Minister Tracey Crouch has said the FA could lose £30m-£40m of public funding if it does not modernise.
FA chairman Greg Clarke reiterated that he will quit if the plans for reform do not win government support.
"This is a transformational leap forward and if the government don't accept this, I'm not sure what else we can do," he told BBC Sport on Monday.
"If government don't want to accept it, who am I to argue but, of course, I will resign."
BBC Radio 5 live sports news correspondent Richard Conway asked Clarke why there were no plans for dedicated black, Asian and minority ethnic background representation on the proposed new 10-member board.
Clarke replied: "What I would like to see is a path to make sure that not only are we gender diverse but ethnically diverse. What I don't want this to be is empty words.
"I want to find a way to achieve it and be accountable. I just need a bit more time to get there.
"It's really important that the FA is representative to society. Throughout the business world, diverse boards make better decisions. I think that's true in football too."
The FA is effectively run by its own parliament, the FA Council, which has 122 members. Just eight are women and only four are from ethnic minorities. More than 90 of the 122 members are aged over 60.
The FA's proposed reforms seek to:
The reforms still have to be approved by the FA Council, which will debate and vote on the recommendations on Monday, 3 April.
If they receive majority approval they will be taken forward to a vote of the shareholders at the FA's annual meeting on 18 May.


Malaysian police say they have foiled a planned attack on Arab royals by suspected militants from Yemen.

Four Yemenis and three other suspects including a Malaysian and an Indonesian were arrested ahead of Saudi King Salman's arrival in Kuala Lumpur.
The monarch is currently touring Asia with 25 princes in his entourage.
Saudi Arabia has been leading a military coalition against the Houthi insurgent group in Yemen for the last two years.
However, it is unclear what group - if any - the Yemeni nationals were aligned with.
A senior police source told news agency Reuters the four were believed to be Houthi insurgents. However, other sources say the suspects were linked to so-called Islamic State.
It is also unclear whether the other three arrested were part of the same group.
The seven suspects were arrested between 21 and 26 February - the day King Salman arrived in the Malaysian capital.
National police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told journalists the group were "planning to attack the Arab royalties during the visit in Kuala Lumpur".
"We got them in the nick of time," he said.
Police also seized multiple international passports from the four Yemeni suspects, along with 270,000 ringgit ($60,740; Â£50,000) in different currencies which they believe was meant to be channelled to the insurgent group.
Mr Abu Bakar told journalists the group "are also involved in distributing drugs".
The United Nations has said Yemen now faces the largest food insecurity emergency in the world, with an estimated 7.3 million people needing immediate help, while more than 10,000 people have been killed in the conflict.
King Salman was accompanied by a 600-strong delegation for his four-day visit in Malaysia.
It was the start of a month-long Asia tour, for which the monarch has packed 459 tonnes of equipment, including two Mercedes-Benz S600s and two electric lifts.


England batsman Kevin Pietersen is "determined to help regain the Ashes" when Australia visit in 2015.

The 33-year-old was England's top scorer in their defeat down under, with 294 runs at an average of 29.
Pietersen added on Twitter: "Very disappointed to lose 5-0 and not to score more runs personally. Tough tour against a top-class team."
But former skipper Michael Vaughan fears England may make Pietersen "a scapegoat" for the Ashes whitewash.
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Vaughan, who captained England to victory in the 2005 Ashes, told the BBC: "I'd be getting him more involved - make him vice-captain.
"But my fear is that England will make him the scapegoat and feel the only way they can move forward is without Kevin Pietersen.
"They have to be very careful. This isn't football. You can't just go out and buy a world-class number four batsman."
Pietersen's Test future has been questioned by pundits, including former England captain Geoffrey Boycott, who criticised the South African-born player during the third-Test defeat in Perth.
"When it comes to batting with patience and concentration against disciplined bowling, he just can't do it," said Boycott, who scored 8,114 runs in 108 Tests. "He bottles it."
But Vaughan, 39, believes it would be a mistake if England dropped Pietersen, who has made 104 Test appearances.
He told BBC Radio 5 live: "My fear is they are going to make the big change and get rid of Kevin Pietersen. I think that would be completely the wrong approach.
"I would be getting Pietersen in closer to the management. I'd have him near that think-tank."
Vaughan believes the "maverick" batsman can offer an alternative perspective to that of key decision-makers like captain Alastair Cook, coach Andy Flower and batting coach Graham Gooch.
Pietersen was England's leading run scorer with 294 at an average of 29.40. Here are his scores in the five Tests:
He added: "At the moment, there are too many people making decisions that are too similar.
"That's why I would go with the maverick Pietersen next to them. Someone completely at the other end of the spectrum. Pietersen would bring a different dimension and then you meet halfway.
"If you just go with the same thing all the time, the same voices and same approach, eventually you get found out."
Pietersen fell well below his Test batting average of 47 down under and was criticised for his risk-taking approach.
Before the series, he said he wanted to continue playing for England until at least the 2015-16 tour of his native South Africa.
"As long as the body goes well, I'm good for it," said Pietersen, who made his international debut in 2004.
Flower, meanwhile, said he "can't be any clearer" about his desire to continue as coach despite the chastening defeat.
While Vaughan, who played in 82 Tests, believes he is the "right man going forward", he says the former Zimbabwe wicketkeeper has much to answer for.
He added: "There has not been enough pointed at Andy Flower. He has got away with it and is the common denominator in this. He has to answer all the questions. He says he saw this coming, so why didn't he do something about it?"
Vaughan said England are "not a great team to watch", adding: "They are a boring bunch. They are a bunch of clones.
"You ask them a question and you know exactly what they are going to say. We are in an entertainment business. We need to see characters."


The European Commission has opened an investigation into whether a plan by Drax to convert a plant from coal to biomass breaches state aid rules.

The Commission said it would look into whether the move was unfair to competitors. Drax shares fell 3.3%.
The UK aims to close all coal-fired generators by 2025, and recently won EU clearance to support a biomass plant being converted by RWE.
Drax said the inquiry was expected as part of the approval process.
The Commission statement said it supported member states' efforts to increase the use of renewable energy, but not at the expense of giving an unfair advantage over competitors and consumers.
The Commission, the European Union's executive arm, said it "fully supports member state efforts to increase the use of renewable energy and pursue EU energy and climate objectives.
"At the same time, EU state aid rules make sure that the cost of such support for consumers is limited and does not give certain operators an unfair advantage over competitors."
The investigation will examine whether public funds "are limited to what is necessary" and do not distort the market for biomass fuels, the statement added.
Last month, the Commission approved UK plans to subsidise the conversion of RWE's Lynemouth coal-fired power plant in northern England to burning biomass, a move seen as positive for Drax.
Around 3%-4% of the UK's electricity is being generated by burning biomass pellets at Drax's huge plant in North Yorkshire. Two of its six coal units have been fully converted to biomass. Drax says a third unit is 85% converted but it needs the subsidy scheme to complete the job.
The scheme was one of three biomass projects given the green light by the government back in 2014. The other two have now received EU state-aid approval. But Drax is on a far bigger scale.
The government insists the probe is a normal part of the EU's State Aid process. But having seen its share price lose more than 70% of its value in the past 2 years, this is more uncertainty that Drax could do without.
Drax operates the UK's largest power station, at Selby, North Yorkshire, which supplies about 8% of the country's electricity. It has already converted two of its six generating units to burn biomass in place of coal.
The UK aid consists of an offer of a "strike price" for the electricity generated. If the average wholesale price falls below that level, the Drax power plant operator would receive an additional payment.
The government strike price for biomass conversion projects is Â£105 per megawatt-hour, compared with a current day-ahead power market price of Â£37 per MWh.
One key area for investigation by the Commission will be whether the strike price means Drax will be overly compensated.
Drax said on its website: "This is the next step in the process for obtaining state aid approval and is in line with expectations.
"Drax welcomes the opportunity to work with the UK government and the EC to complete the state aid clearance process."
The plant would run on wood pellets, mainly imported from the US and South America.


UK scientists say they have uncovered tentative evidence that repeated blows to the head during a footballer's professional career may be linked to long-term brain damage.

The research, the first of its kind, follows anecdotal reports that players heading heavy balls may be more prone to developing dementia later in life.
The Football Association says it will look at this area more closely.
But experts said recreational players were unlikely to incur problems.
The small study is published in the journal Acta Neuropathologica.
Researchers from University College London and Cardiff University examined the brains of five people who had been professional footballers and one who had been a committed amateur throughout his life.
They had played football for an average of 26 years and all six went on to develop dementia in their 60s.
While performing post mortem examinations, scientists found signs of brain injury - called chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE) in four cases.
CTE has been linked to memory loss, depression and dementia and has been seen in other contact sports.
Prof Huw Morris, of University College London, told the BBC: "When we examined their brains at autopsy we saw the sorts of changes that are seen in ex-boxers, the changes that are often associated with repeated brain injury which are known as CTE.
"So really for the first time in a series of players we have shown that there is evidence that head injury has occurred earlier in their life which presumably has some impact on them developing dementia."
The report's authors make it clear they were not analysing the risks of heading by children.
The inquest of ex-England player Jeff Astle, who died in 2002, found that repeatedly heading heavy leather footballs had contributed to trauma to his brain.
His family have been campaigning for further research.
Mr Astle's widow, Laraine, from Netherseal in Derbyshire, said: "We've been saying this for 15 years [since Jeff died]. His inquest said he died of industrial disease.
"It is disgraceful nothing concrete has been done since by the FA or the PFA.
"It's all about informed choice. On the back of a cigarette packet, smokers can read about risks to their health.
"Football has been trying to bury its head in the sand and not admit that the game can be a killer."
The couple's daughter Dawn set up the Jeff Astle Foundation with her mother and sister, to campaign for further research. She is calling for more donors to donate their brains.
"We know what's happened in America with the dedicated brain bank of former American footballers. It is vitally important that we can get a similar thing here. And get current footballers or families of footballers to pledge the brain.
"If we hadn't donated dad's brain, we wouldn't know what we know now. We wouldn't know what had killed him."
But the science is far from clear-cut.
Each brain also showed signs of Alzheimer's disease and some had blood vessel changes that can also lead to dementia.
Researchers speculate that it was a combination of factors that contributed to dementia in these players.
But they acknowledge their research cannot definitively prove a link between football and dementia and are calling for larger studies to look at footballers' long-term brain health.
Dr David Reynolds, at the charity Alzheimer's Research UK, said: "The causes of dementia are complex and it is likely that the condition is caused by a combination of age, lifestyle and genetic factors.
"Further research is needed to shed light on how lifestyle factors such as playing sport may alter dementia risk, and how this sits in the context of the well-established benefits of being physically active."
He added that for people who are recreational footballers, football injuries are unlikely to cause long-term problems and he pointed to expert advice that the benefit of exercise is likely to outweigh the risks.
A number of previous cases involving boxers and American footballers have suggested that repetitive blows can cause long-lasting and progressive brain damage.
But until now there have only been a few case reports of individual footballers with CTE in the UK and the extent of the issue is still unknown.
The Football Association welcomed the study and said research was particularly needed to find out whether degenerative brain disease is more common in ex-footballers.
Dr Charlotte Cowie, of the FA, added: "The FA is determined to support this research and is also committed to ensuring that any research process is independent, robust and thorough, so that when the results emerge, everyone in the game can be confident in its findings."


A suspended Liberal Democrat candidate in Newport has resigned from the party and accused them of treating him as "guilty until proven innocent".

Paul Halliday claimed the Lib Dems have told him nothing about allegations leading to his suspension this month.
The former church minister said he had given evidence to fraud police that text messages were falsely sent in his name, as if they came from his phone.
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau said it was looking into his claims.
The Lib Dems have declined to comment.
Mr Halliday stood as Lib Dem candidate for Newport East at the 2015 general election and the 2016 assembly poll, and was due to stand for Newport council at the local elections in May.
He said his resignation meant he would not be at a party hearing into the allegations scheduled for 28 January.
The details of the claims against him have not been formally revealed.
The Lib Dems said at the time of his suspension that an internal investigation was under way.
Mr Halliday told BBC Wales he had seen evidence of fake text messages sent in his name in a "very sophisticated" and "obviously... deliberate act by someone to disparage me".
He announced he had left the Lib Dems on a politics podcast he takes part in called The Three Muckrakers.
The ex-minister at the Newport Church of Christ told the podcast that he quit the party because he was not willing to be "in limbo" for months while the claims were investigated.
"The truth is that I have been treated by the party as guilty until proven innocent," he said.
"It feels like a kangaroo court. The priority is finding out who has stolen my identity. I have more important things to do with my life."
Mr Halliday, who works for a property management company, claimed the suspension resulted from an anonymous letter sent to the press.
But he added: "I've not been told what the allegations are still. So from a party point of view I'm still in a black hole".
He stressed that the party was right to "protect itself" by investigating the allegations, but he criticised what he called a lack of support from the Lib Dems.
Mr Halliday said the experience had been "tough" but people who knew him had "rallied around".
The National Fraud Intelligence Bureau - which is the national policing lead organisation for fraud - told BBC Wales that it received information from Mr Halliday on 12 January which was "currently in the process of being assessed".
His suspension has been handled by the Lib Dems at a UK level.
Neither they nor the Welsh Lib Dems would comment on whether the hearing on 28 January will go ahead.
Gwent Police said it was also unable to comment.


Analysis of commercially available rice imported into the US has revealed it contains levels of lead far higher than regulations suggest are safe.

Some samples exceeded the "provisional total tolerable intake" (PTTI) set by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) by a factor of 120.
However, the results are preliminary and will be extensively reviewed prior to publication in a journal.
The FDA told the BBC it would review the research.
The report at the American Chemical Society Meeting adds to the already well-known issue of arsenic in rice.
Lead is known to be harmful to many organs and the central nervous system, and is a particular risk for young children, who suffer significant developmental problems if exposed to elevated lead levels.
Because rice is grown in heavily irrigated conditions, it is more susceptible than other staple crops to environmental pollutants in irrigation water.
Recent studies have highlighted the presence of arsenic in rice - prompting consumption advice from the UK's Food Standards Agency and more recently from the FDA.
However, other heavy metals represent a risk as well.
Dr Tsanangurayi Tongesayi of Monmouth University in New Jersey, US, and his team have tested a number of imported brands of rice bought from local shops.
The US imports about 7% of its rice, and the team sampled packaged rice from Bhutan, Italy, China, Taiwan, India, Israel, the Czech Republic and Thailand - which accounts for 65% of US imports.
The team measured the lead levels in each country-category and calculated the lead intake on the basis of daily consumption. The results have been submitted to the Journal of Environmental Science and Health (Part B).
"When we compared them, we realised that the daily exposure levels are much higher than those PTTIs," said Dr Tongesayi.
"According to the FDA, they have to be more than 10 times the PTTI levels (to cause a health concern), and our values were two to 12 times higher than those 10 times," he told BBC News.
"So we can only conclude that they can potentially cause harmful effects."
That factor of 120 (12 times higher than 10 times the PTTI) alluded to by Dr Tongesayi is for children - most susceptible by virtue of age - among groups who eat rice more regularly than the average, such as Asians and Latinos.
For average adults, the excesses above the PTTI ranged from 20 to 40.
Rice from China and Taiwan had the highest lead levels, but Dr Tongesayi stressed that all of the samples significantly exceeded the PTTIs.
Dr Tongesayi has also worked on quantifying arsenic contamination - and is in effect working his way through the heavy metals one by one to determine their prevalence.
The problem, he said, is the range of agricultural practices around the world.
"If you look through the scientific literature, especially on India and China, (some farmers) irrigate their crops with raw sewage effluent and untreated industrial effluent," he explained.
"Research has been done in those countries, and concerns have been raised because of those practices, but it's still ongoing."
Dr Tongesayi also said that the increasing practice of sending electronic waste to developing countries - and the pollution it leads to - exacerbates the problem.
"With a globalised food market, we eat food from every corner of the world, but pollution conditions are… different from region to region, agricultural practices are different from region to region, but we ignore that.
"Maybe we need international regulations that will govern production and distribution of food."
So far, such international oversight exists informally in the form of the Codex Alimentarius, a collection of food-safety standards first set out by the United Nations.
FDA spokesman Noah Bartolucci told BBC News that the "FDA plans to review the new research on lead levels in imported rice released today".
"As part of an ongoing and proactive effort to monitor and address contaminants in food traded internationally, FDA chairs an international working group to review current international standards for lead in selected commodities, including rice, and to revise, if necessary, maximum lead levels under the… Codex Alimentarius," he said.
Update 9 May 2013: This story was amended on 24 April to emphasise the preliminary nature of the results, which were under review both by the authors and the journal to which they were submitted for publication. A further report on the findings of the study has also been published.


People are being warned to take care after a Portuguese man-of-war washed up on a beach in Cornwall.

The eye-catching but potentially dangerous floating sea creatures are only occasionally reported in the UK.
Their tentacles can give a painful sting if they are touched, even if out of water.
It was spotted at Portheras Cove between St Ives and Sennen Cove on Thursday 30 July.
Delia Webb, a biological scientist and spokesperson for Friends of Portheras Cove, said she was delighted at the discovery.
She said: "They're beautiful creatures, but when they get stranded on a beach or they're not in the water, children can think they're balloons or something else.
"They don't actually realise they've got a powerful sting and they can be dangerous even after they've been stranded. The venom is quite powerful."
Peter Richardson from the Marine Conservation Society urged people not to touch them if they see one.
"They can pack a very powerful sting," he said. "In some parts of the world those stings have been fatal, but not in the UK."
He asked people to report any sightings.
A few of the sea creatures were reported on beaches in south west Cornwall towards the end of 2012.
They are made up of a colony of many tiny marine organisms living together called hydrozoans.
NHS advice states that anyone stung should seek immediate medical assistance if severe lasting pain is experienced, or if the affected area becomes infected.


Scotland's more expensive homes will see their prices stick this year as stamp duty is replaced, according to a leading estate agency.

Savill's has reported the market will then adjust, and top-end properties can be expected to see 4% annual increases from next year.
The agency forecast that the mainstream market can be expected to see a rise of 3.5% in values through 2015.
It said this would happen faster than in other parts of the UK.
Another major agency, DJ Alexander, warned buyers not to rush into transactions before the tax changes, as they could spend more that way.
Managing director David Alexander said: "Most vendors will be forced, from 1 April, to drop their prices to make their properties more saleable.
"In all likelihood, it will make more sense to buy after 31 March for anyone seeking a property priced at Â£750,000 or more."
Savill's specialises in selling up-market property, and said the segment costing more than Â£400,000 had outperformed the mainstream market in recent years because it was less dependent on mortgages.
Last year, premium city properties rose by 5% in value, though rural area prices fell. The strongest markets were Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen.
The falling oil price is expected to hit prices in Aberdeen but, at current valuations, Savill's said the city's property market can absorb that in the medium term.
Across Scotland, the agency's report claimed rising prices can be expected to stall this year due to the replacement of stamp duty by the Land and Buildings Transaction Tax (LBTT), set by Holyrood.
Starting from 1 April, it means the transaction tax bill will be higher in Scotland than the rest of Britain for properties changing hands for more than Â£333,000.
From next year, however, Savill's modelling suggests that price inflation will return, and by 2019 the premium and the mainstream market will have risen by a similar level of 17.5%.
Faisal Choudhry, Savill's head of research in Scotland, said:  "Despite the challenges facing the top end, there is a more positive outlook for the Scottish residential property market as a whole, due to the establishment of three important foundations.
"These are the introduction of favourable LBTT rates for the majority of buyers, a dissipation of interest rate fears in the short term and the continuation of gradual economic growth.
"Looking further ahead to 2016, we expect more conventional market conditions to prevail, with mainstream market recovery fuelling buyer activity further up the market from next year onwards.
"The prime market is expected to absorb the turbulence of recent political and taxation challenges and to continue the value growth that had been under way prior to the referendum."


Two men who took part in dissident republican event, during which a masked man made threats against UK forces, have been given suspended sentences.

Ciaran Anthony Boyle and Anthony Michael Lancaster participated in the event in Londonderry in 2012, which commemorated the 1916 Easter Rising.
Lancaster, from Circular Road in the Creggan area of Derry, was described as being the event's Master of Ceremonies.
Boyle, of The Meadows, Derry, held the Irish tricolour during the speeches.
He was also alleged to have collected various other flags from members of the colour party who attended the event in Derry's City Cemetery on the day in question - Easter Monday, 9 April 2012.
The dissident republican rally was organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement.
A unnamed masked man, who claimed to speak on behalf of the paramilitary groups ??glaigh na h??ireann (ONH) and the Real IRA, addressed the event.
He stated that the "IRA" would continue to attack "Crown force personnel" and "British interests and infrastructures".
Almost a year later, in March 2013, Boyle and Lancaster were arrested by police investigating the rally.
The pair were both charged with assisting in, arranging or managing a meeting which they knew was to be addressed by a person who belonged or professed to belong to a proscribed organisation, namely the IRA.
Boyle, 30, and 53-year-old Lancaster initially denied the charge when their non-jury Diplock trial began last month
However, they later changed their pleas to guilty, and were sentenced at Belfast Crown Court on Thursday.
A defence barrister, representing Lancaster, told the court his client was unaware that a masked man was going to give a speech at the podium.
Boyle's barrister said her client's involvement in the event was "of a low level".
She also told the court that a large number of other people attended the event but their prosecution "is not being sought".
The judge handed both men a 12-month sentence, which he suspended for three years.


A 73-year-old woman who sent death threats to Theresa May before she became prime minister has been jailed for almost four years.

Isabella Jackson, from Buckhaven, Fife, also admitted making bomb threats to Harrods, London's Kings Cross Station and Edinburgh Airport.
The pensioner also sent white powder labelled as "death" to police in Fife.
She previously served a two-year jail term for threatening to blow up a plane carrying then-President Barack Obama.
The 73-year-old will now serve a further 45 months behind bars over the threats, which started only months after she was released from prison from her previous sentence.
A sheriff told her that her "twisted mind" had led her to "cause the utmost disruption from the comfort of her sofa".
Kirkcaldy Sheriff Court heard that on 24 November 2014, Jackson sent an e-mail from her home in Buckhaven to aides of then-Home Secretary Theresa May.
In it she threatened to kill the now prime minister.
An allegation that she sent images and details of bombs, explosives and violence in a string of other emails was deleted by the prosecution.
Then on 4 January this year Jackson, who was on bail for the Theresa May threat charges, made bomb threats against department store Harrods and Kings Cross Station in London, as well as Edinburgh Airport.
She sent an email from her home to the Police Scotland Professional Standards Department in Aberdeen and to the Professional Standards Department of the Metropolitan Police in London.
Shortly after the bomb threats, Jackson sent a package by post to the Levenmouth CID office in Methil, Fife.
In it she sent a packet of white powder and a card with the word "death" written on it, which sparked a major incident.
Firefighters and ambulances rushed to the scene and a major investigation was launched which led police to Jackson.
Jackson had not guilty pleas to charges that she made bomb threats against US Embassies in Paris and London accepted by the Crown.


The BBC has been praised for launching a "fantastic" online guide to the care system for the over-65s.

The "care calculator" covers both residential care and the support provided in people's own homes.
Users can submit their postcode and find out how much each service costs wherever they live in the UK.
Care Minister Norman Lamb said it was a great example of "public sector broadcasting", while users praised they way it explained the system.
The gudie also gives details about how the systems differ in the four nations - since devolution, the way services are organised has diverged.
The ageing population means there is an increasing focus on care services - and how they link up with the NHS.
About 420,000 people live in care homes across the UK, while another 1m get help in their own home.
Some people pay for all their care, while others get help from their local councils towards their fees.
There are another 1.5 million people who rely on friends and family for support.The guide has been compiled using information from analysts LaingBuisson, councils and through the Freedom of Information Act.
It shows how care costs can vary - in Barnsley the average sum paid for a care home place is £399.13 a week, for example, while in the London borough of Kensington and Chelsea costs top £1,000.
Users in England are also able to get an estimate of how much they may have to pay before their care costs are capped under a reform due to be introduced in April 2016.
420,000
people live in care homes
1 in 3
pay for themselves
£574 avg weekly fee in England
£513 avg weekly fee in Wales
£510 avg weekly fee in Scotland
£492  avg weekly fee in N Ireland
Elsewhere in the UK, the guide provides information about local fees - and what elements of the system are free.
In Scotland, personal care is free, while in Northern Ireland many do not have to pay for home care. In Wales, help at home is capped at £55 a week.
Norman Lamb, England's care minister, said: "This calculator is a fantastic resource.
"It gives you lots of great information and is what public sector broadcasting is all about. I'm really impressed."
Janet Morrison, chief executive of the Independent Age charity, said: "Working out what to pay for care is a complex business and is often approached at a strained and emotional point in people's lives.
"Anything that makes this process simpler to plan, understand and navigate is applauded."
Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, added: "The BBC's care cap calculator is a useful tool that brings some clarity to a complicated system."
The guide has also been well received by the public. One BBC website user in Rome emailed the BBC to say: "Many thanks for this very useful tool. I am following the care of my elderly mother who lives at home in Surrey  and found the tool very informative and useful."
While a twitter user said: "Such an important policy issue and what a great resource."
The launch of the calculator has also prompted wide-ranging debate and comments on social media about the care system. One Facebook user described how an elderly neighbour was helped by people living locally, meaning she only needed professional help just before she died at the age of 89.
"The cost was negligible to the taxpayer compared to what it would have cost if all the neighbour's had ignored her. Surely we all owe it to our friends and neighbour's to do our bit?"


If your house was infested with mice, the chances are that you would call a pest control firm to get rid of them.

Once they had done their work, you might go as far as to replace some of the furniture nibbled by the rodents but you probably wouldn't replace every single item they had touched.
Yet that was the approach taken by the New York Times when it cleaned house after its internal network was infested by a more modern nuisance - computer hackers.
Every device, be it a laptop or chunk of network hardware, known or thought to have been compromised by the Chinese hackers was thrown out and replaced with a shiny, and more importantly, clean machine.
The newspaper wanted to be sure that no trace of the hackers remained.
In addition, the NYT beefed up its defences, blocked access from other compromised machines that had been used to get into its network and found and removed every back door into the newspaper's network.
The decision to replace computers was motivated by the all-encompassing access that the attackers had to the NYT network. In an article detailing the attack, the NYT said the Chinese attackers had access for at least four months.
Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at security company Sophos, which often helps companies cope with intrusions by hackers, said replacing all those machines was "a bit extreme".
"Normally, the most extreme measure is to reformat drives or completely wipe them but even that would be a bit of a sledgehammer," he said.
Reformatting and wiping drives was sufficient to defeat even those malicious programs that buried themselves deep in the heart of the Windows operating system, he said.
"Usually they would put a clean Windows installation on there rather than chuck out the hardware," he added.
Mr Cluley speculated that the NYT threw out the machines to reassure partners, employees and others that the intrusion had been dealt with.
The lingering problem, he said, was that the NYT was still not sure how its attackers won access to its network.
The NYT suspects a so-called "spear phishing" attack that sent targeted, booby-trapped messages to a few key individuals. After they had won access to one computer, the attackers may have used that as a lever to pry open other parts of the network.
"It can be very difficult to determine when and where the initial entry point was," he said, adding that without firm information about that, throwing out the old hardware might be a reasonable choice.
The attack on the NYT was just one example of a growing number of attacks, seen by Sophos and other security firms, said Mr Cluley.
While some attackers got in and out quickly when they had stolen payment information, others were content to lurk inside a network for months, seeking out useful internal information including intellectual property, design documents or confidential financial plans.
"This was a long-term operation to steal intelligence and information that went under the radar," he said. "These sorts of targeted attacks that use unknown vulnerabilities do seem to be on the rise."
"Security starts with knowing what you have," said Stephen Schmidt, chief security officer at Amazon's web services told the BBC in an earlier interview. Mr Schmidt is a former FBI investigator who specialised in intrusion analysis.
Mr Schmidt said many companies had discovered that one consequence of using cloud-based services was that it forced them to find out everything about their internal network. The very act of shifting from an in-house data centre to an on-demand service can start a powerful discovery process.
"You can see exactly what you have," he said. "There are no more dusty corners that someone can get to."
In addition, because most cloud-based services used standardised hardware and software it was far easier to keep an eye on who was doing what. A similar level of scrutiny was much harder to manage on the infrastructure a company had grown up with, he said.
"In the cloud... by definition you cannot log someone on under the desk," said Mr Schmidt.


Former captain Alan Shearer believes England have no chance of winning the 2014 World Cup and are "a million miles away" from the top international sides.

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Roy Hodgson's side were knocked out of Euro 2012 by Italy on penalties.
"I don't attach any blame to Roy Hodgson," Shearer told BBC Sport. "But I don't go along with the idea England go home with their heads held high.
"It's no good sitting here saying we will win the World Cup in two years' time. The reality is we will not."
"Alan Shearer's outspoken comments about England will strike a chord with those who believe Euro 2012 confirmed that a change of football culture is needed in this country.
"They may not go down well with the players who fought so hard against a vastly-superior Italy before losing in the quarter-final in Kiev, but he is only echoing the thoughts of many."
Hodgson's side were beaten by Italy last Sunday after being outclassed in a goalless draw in Kiev.
England's players won plaudits for an improved performance in Poland and Ukraine, after a disastrous World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
Germany coach Joachim Loew - who masterminded a 4-1 thrashing of Fabio Capello's side two years ago - has praised Hodgson's management, and said that "England will develop under him in the next few years."
But Shearer sees a vast gulf in quality between England and the likes of Spain and Loew's Germany side.
"The big thing people have spoken about is the togetherness and work ethic but if you just want 11 guys to go out and work hard, I can find you 11 men from Newcastle city centre who will work their socks off," he said.
"That has to be a given, whether at a club or even more so for an international team.
"We are a million miles away from the top sides. Heads held high? Do you think France will go home to that reception?
"It's a sign of how far behind we are now that we can go home and say we can hold our heads up high for getting into the quarter finals."
The Football Association recently voted in proposals for youth coaching which include smaller-sided games on smaller pitches with smaller goals.
But Shearer believes any progress on the international stage will need a vast improvement in the coaching culture of the country, which could take years.
He said: "We have got to get out of the habit of going to tournaments thinking we can win it. This tournament has proven that. We need a change in culture and to be fair to the FA they are trying to change things now.
"It's going to take time to put these systems in place. Our league is the best in the world for entertainment but only because it is full of foreigners."
Fellow England international and BBC Sport pundit Lee Dixon also called for changes.
"Let's remind ourselves where we were two years ago under Capello," he said. "We have come on, the team was an absolute shambles. We have repaired that but we haven't moved forwards football-wise.
"If you go and watch how they teach kids to play football on the continent, they are all doing it a different way to us. And we are not progressing, so they must be doing it right.
"It's not rocket science."


Fifa has expressed its concerns over a shaking pitch at one of Russia's 2018 World Cup venues.

The £550m 68,000-seater stadium in St Petersburg has a retractable playing surface which world football's governing body says is unstable.
It added: "Engineers will propose a solution to ensure a stable field."
The issue is that the field rolls into the venue on an unstable base and needs to be strengthened
The Krestovsky Stadium, which will become the home of Zenit St Petersburg, will host a World Cup semi-final and 2017 Confederations Cup games.
Russia's deputy prime minister Vitaly Mutko said: "The issue is that the field rolls into the venue on an unstable base and needs to be strengthened."
He said the problem was "nothing unusual" and the stadium would still meet its completion date next month.
Russia MP and former USSR player Valery Gazzaev added: "If the pitch is unsuited to holding such major events, then why has it been built?"
Russian opposition blogger Rustem Adagamov wrote on Twitter: "Just what we need, to spend 10 years building a stadium, spend half a billion dollars, and build a pitch you can't play on. Awesome."
Additional information provided by BBC Monitoring


Ministers from all over the world gather in Paris on Monday in a final push for a new global climate compact.

The politicians will attempt to craft a deal from a draft negotiating text signed off by delegates here on Saturday.
Poor countries warned the talks would fail if the rich tried to limit their right to grow to protect the climate.
One delegate said the poor could not accept starvation as the price of a successful deal in Paris.
Negotiators have taken four years to produce the draft text of a long-term agreement. The ministers will have just five days to turn that text into a deal acceptable to all 195 parties here.
That will not be easy.
The document at the moment runs to 48 pages and contains more than 900 square brackets, used to signify areas of disagreement.
Some delegates are concerned that too much is being left to the politicians.
"All the difficult political issues remain unsolved, and will be solved by the ministers," said Miguel Arias Canete, the European Union's Climate Commissioner.
"Next week is the week of compromise; it's a difficult week," he told a news conference.
There are still disagreements over whether this deal will be completely legally binding or whether just parts of it will be.
There are splits over what the long-term goal of the deal should be. Many island nations want the text to reflect the fact that if the world warms more than 1.5C, their homes may be lost to rising seas. Other countries favour a two-degree goal.
Another key issue is the question of differentiation. When the UN climate convention was signed back in 1992, the world was divided into developed and developing countries. The richer countries now want the new Paris deal to reflect how the world has changed.
"Developed countries and now many developing countries acknowledge that the world has changed," said Michael Jacobs, a climate adviser to British Prime Minister at the time of the Copenhagen talks in 2009, Gordon Brown.
"There are many different kinds of countries, and they want developing countries to act as well as developed. That kind of binary division cannot be in an agreement that is signed."
But the idea of a change does not sit well with many of the leading developing nations. China criticised any attempts to change this division in the talks about the final deal.
"We cannot accept starvation as a price for the success of this agreement," said Gurdial Singh Nijar of Malaysia, who was speaking for the Like Minded Group of countries in these talks that includes China, India and Saudi Arabia.
"The world has changed? Yes, the world has changed but not in the way that you intend to use it perhaps as a subterfuge to undermine the basic precepts of the convention.
"We cannot accept that because to accept that is to destroy our societies," he said to applause.
There are concerns over finance as well, as the richer countries want to expand the base of donor countries if there is to be an increase in the promised $100bn from 2020 to help the poorer countries cope with climate change and ease their transition to low-carbon electricity.
There are also significant divisions over how the promises made to cut carbon in this agreement will be reviewed, how often and in what format.
Despite these many differences, there is a widespread feeling that compromises will be found.
One of the biggest challenges may well be fatigue, especially for the poorer countries who have small teams of negotiators trying to cover many meetings.
"Our negotiators must contribute to hours of talks, representing the poorest nations, as other countries tap in and out around them, as well as fitting in all the other meetings at the start and end of the day," said a source close to the group.
"They are averaging around three hours' sleep a night and the pressure will only grow."
Follow Matt on Twitter @mattmcgrathbbc.
COP 21 - the 21st session of the Conference of the Parties - will see more than 190 nations gather in Paris to discuss a possible new global agreement on climate change, aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions to avoid the threat of dangerous warming due to human activities.
Explained: What is climate change?
In video: Why does the Paris conference matter?
Analysis: Latest from BBC environment correspondent Matt McGrath
More: BBC News climate change special report


A man has been found guilty of raping a sleeping 20-year-old woman following a night out in Edinburgh.

Aymeric Sarrazin, 31, continued to rape the drunk woman after she woke up in her Meadowbank flat and told him "no".
The victim was left with a bite mark and bleeding after the assault at her then home.
Sarrazin had denied raping the woman on 25 July 2015 while she was intoxicated and asleep and continuing the assault after she told him no.
However, a jury at the High Court in Edinburgh convicted him of the offence on a majority verdict.
The woman told the court she remembered opening her eyes and found Sarrazin, from Bourg-La-Reine in France, on top of her having sex with her.
She said she was in shock and lay terrified and that her attacker moved her limbs "like a puppet".
Advocate depute Iain McSporran told jurors: "The Crown case is that she was incapable of consenting to sex with the accused because of the effects of alcohol and in particular she was asleep or unconscious through the effects of alcohol."
The prosecutor said he continued to rape her even after she awoke despite her protests, using force and strength to overcome her protests.
She had met up with a female workmate and was drinking at a flat in the city before they went out in the company of Sarrazin and others to bars in the Cowgate area.
The colleague told the court that she was concerned for the woman and said: "She needed to stop drinking. I would say she was probably slightly more drunk than I was."
The two women and Sarrazin and a friend got a taxi and the workmate said she was going to the victim's flat to make sure she got home. They all went up to the flat.
"My thought was just to get her in. Get her settled. Get her into bed. Make sure everything was off and leave her," she said.
She said the woman had said not to go on her account and to stay. She said music was put on and she was in the living room with the other man. She thought Sarrazin had "crashed out" on the woman's bed.
Sarrazin claimed to police that he had asked the woman if he could sleep with her and she said yes but then changed her mind.
He told police that at no point did she tell him to stop and added: "For me, she was conscious."
But Mr McSporran told the court that Sarrazin had taken advantage of a younger woman after they had just met.
First offender Sarrazin, who had been on bail during his trial, was remanded in custody after he was found guilty of the offence.
The judge, Lord Kinclaven, deferred sentence on the rapist for the preparation of a background report. Sarrazin will be sentenced next month at the High Court in Glasgow.
He was placed on the sex offenders' register.


Commodities giant Glencore plans to reduce its $30bn (Â£19.8bn) debt pile, raise cash on the stock markets and suspend some African copper output.

Glencore said it aimed to reduce its net debt "to the low US$20bns by the end of 2016".
It said it would sell assets and raise $2.5bn in a new share issue.
The firm also said it would suspend some of its copper production operations in Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo for 18 months.
It estimated that the suspension would remove 400,000 tonnes of copper from the global market, equivalent to about a quarter of the firm's total copper production.
It has also stopped dividend payments to shareholders until further notice.
Glencore shares were suspended in Hong Kong ahead of the announcement but closed up by 7% in London trade. Last week they had been trading some 60% below their level at the start of the year.
In August, the firm reported a first-half loss of $676m after being hit by falling oil and metal prices.
The Switzerland-based firm also said at the time that investment spending in 2016 was expected to be lower than this year.
Glencore says the Zambian and Congo mines due to be suspended are both decades old with production costs close to double those of its more modern Congo mines.
The suspension will allow Glencore to upgrade and expand the operations to reduce costs.
Prices for copper and coal - two of the company's most important products - have fallen to six-year lows in recent times.
Ratings agency Standard & Poor's said last week it might lower Glencore's credit rating if the giant did not reduce its debt.
"We would likely lower the rating on Glencore if we perceive reduced commitment to defending the rating or if commodity prices persist below our price deck or fall further, absent material offsetting factors," the ratings agency said at the time.
Glencore's chief executive Ivan Glasenberg and chief financial officer Steven Kalmin said in a statement on Monday the measures would not affect their core business activities.
They also said the measures had "been designed to sensibly accelerate the deleveraging of our balance sheet [and] maximise future cash-flow generation in the current weak commodity price environment" .