"The economy of America, United States and others around the world are improving month-by-month," America's most famous investor, the so-called "Oracle of Omaha", said during his first visit to India.

"It might not be quite as fast as everybody would like but it is happening," the chairman of investment giant Berkshire Hathaway told India's CNBC-TV18 in an interview.

Buffett is in India to join Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates in seeking to persuade India's super-rich to part with some of their wealth as part of the "Giving Pledge" drive launched by the tycoons last year.

Gates and Buffett, who dined with Chinese billionaires on a similar mission last September, were to meet wealthy Indians on Thursday in New Delhi.

Buffett, known for his stock picking acumen, added global economies will only be "slightly affected" by the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan.

He said the Japanese disaster will set Japan "back for a while, but it won't set them back for years. They will come back."

He praised fast-growing India, a country of 1.2 billion people, as a "dream market."

"The number of people, the buying power that they are gaining, the ability to produce things, everything is getting better every day," he said. "I look forward to doing more business in India."

Buffett, 80, who has yet to name a successor for Berkshire Hathaway, added that the $200 billion investment company had "a clear succession plan".

"If I die at night, the board of directors has somebody. It is going to happen some night and the next morning, they know who will be in charge."

He dodged questions about whether Indian-born Ajit Jain, head of Berkshire's reinsurance operations, might succeed him as chief executive, but heaped praise on him "as someone with incredible talent".

Jain has long been mentioned as a contender to succeed Buffett.

earlier related report
Portugal tip of iceberg as Euro leaders tackle debt woes
Brussels (AFP) March 23, 2011 - With crisis-hit Portugal on the brink of a government collapse, European leaders faced an uphill task Wednesday going into a summit meant to seal defences against a year-long debt crisis.

Leaders from the 27 European Union states lock horns Thursday and Friday in Brussels amid divisions over military action in Libya and nuclear safety after Japan's quake and tsunami severely damaged a reactor.

The debt crisis will take up most of their energies, with the summit supposed to deliver a comprehensive set of measures to remedy the problem just as Portugal, widely seen as the next in line for a bailout, heads into the unknown.

Protesters have erected giant banners railing against austerity near EU headquarters as police brace for some 20,000 demonstrators echoing complaints in Portugal against stringent belt-tightening measures.

After Greece and Ireland were bailed out last year, debt-laden Portugal's main opposition party said it would vote against the government's austerity plan later Wednesday, a move that would guarantee its rejection.

Socialist Prime Minister Jose Socrates has said he would resign in that event, risking that the markets would turn completely against Portugal, leaving it no option but to seek outside help.

His plan, aimed at squeezing Portugal's public deficit to 4.6 percent of GDP this year, has been endorsed by eurozone partners, meaning they would demand similarly tough conditions if any request for emergency loans is lodged.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the head of the Eurogroup of finance ministers from the shared currency area, said: "If that turns out to be the case, it would be under strict conditions."

Lisbon must repay nine billion euros ($12.9 billion) of debt by June 15 but current money market rates of nearly 7.5 percent are considered unsustainable, meaing it cannot realistically raise fresh funds to cover its obligations.

A Portugal bailout would come at the worst possible time, not least because it would have to be sourced from the temporary European Financial Stability Facility, notionally worth 440 billion euros.

Already tapped by Ireland, the amount the fund can currently lend, allowing for a required buffer, is around 200 billion euros.

Diplomats told AFP that Finland has excluded any increase in EFSF guarantees on Friday before its April 17 elections.

As the pressure increases, German Chancellor Angela Merkel also wants to re-negotiate Berlin's contributions to a permanent European Stability Mechanism to replace the EFSF in 2013, which will be able to provide 500 billion euros in fresh funding to those countries in need.

Slovakia and Estonia also have problems here but Germany carries the greatest clout having paid the most towards the Greek and Irish bailouts, which combined came to nearly 200 billion euros.

Leaders are due to endorse a basic EU treaty change enabling the ESM's creation but battles also rage elsewhere.

Ireland wants better terms on its bailout in line with those granted to Greece but eurozone partners are demanding Dublin first raise its low corporation tax levels.

France specifically wants a reference to a need for "pragmatic tax coordination" and alongside Spain, Austria and Greece, Paris also wants the goal of a Financial Transactions Tax identifed -- a measure Germany, Italy and Denmark oppose.

A new 'pact' setting out economic benchmarks for EU states to match -- so that in practice their economic policies converge -- is also stirring trouble.

Poland, Denmark, Lithuania, Latvia and Bulgaria are ready to sign up but current EU chair Hungary and the Czech Republic will not.

Britain has already secured exemptions to a scheme forcing states to submit national budgets to peer review, wanting to focus instead on growth-enhancing measures, backed by the likes of the Netherlands and Poland.

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