PRESS DIGEST-Financial Times, Wall St Journal Asia editions

SINGAPORE, Jan 5 (Reuters) - The Financial Times and the Wall Street Journal carried the following stories in their Asia print and/or Web site editions on Monday. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

FINANCIAL TIMES (www.ft.com)

-- Barack Obama's emergency $775 billion fiscal stimulus package to revive the contracting U.S. economy is highly unlikely to be passed before he is inaugurated on Jan. 20, congressional leaders warned.

-- Israeli troops and tanks on Sunday continued to battle Hamas fighters inside the Gaza Strip, on the second day of a massive ground offensive designed to prevent the Islamist group from firing rockets on nearby Israeli towns.

-- Taro Aso, the beleaguered Japanese prime minister, dismissed opposition calls for an early general election, insisting he would not consider dissolving the Diet's lower house until it passed budget legislation intended to boost the economy.

WALL STREET JOURNAL (www.wsj.com)

-- New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson withdrew his nomination as President-elect Barack Obama's commerce secretary Sunday, citing a federal grand-jury investigation into a "pay to play" scheme in his home state, Obama transition officials said.

-- The manufacturing sector in China continued to shrink in December, bolstering expectations that the economy will weaken further before any pickup, but the contraction wasn't as sharp as before.

-- Bernard Madoff accepted $10 million from an investor just six days before he was arrested for allegedly running a mammoth fraud, according to a complaint filed in federal bankruptcy court.