www.shaproperty.com

'The US consumer has benefited from the rapid rise in the value of housing,' Mr Soros said. 'Equity could be withdrawn from that increased value. Basically half of that is spent.'

Last year, he said, such activity in the US real estate market provided a stimulus of around US$450 billion to the economy, but the housing boom is slowing. 'Whether that can be absorbed is the big un answered question confronting the global economy,' he told an audience at the London School of Economics, where he was once a student.

Mr Soros also said the global imbalance caused by huge US deficits could go on as long as countries like China are willing to finance over-consumption.

At the same forum, Mr Soros said OAO Rosneft, Russia's state oil company, shouldn't be allowed to trade publicly because of the country's potential to monopolise global energy supplies.

The 75-year-old former financier, who turned his attention to political and charitable activities, also said the European Union member states must have a more cohesive energy policy to negotiate with Russia.

Russia, with 143 million people, is the world's second-biggest energy producer after Saudi Arabia. The government built Rosneft into the country's third-biggest oil company using assets seized in 2004 from OAO Yukos Oil Co. The company said in June that it plans to raise as much as US$11.6 billion in an initial public offering. 'It's an issue that should not be allowed to proceed, but I think it will,' Mr Soros said. - Reuters, Bloomberg