Giant Chinese oil company Sinopec has made a $7.22 billion takeover bid for Canadian oil and gas exploration company Addax Petroleum, the companies announced Wednesday. The takeover would give Sinopec access to Addax’s stakes in oil fields off the coast of West Africa, as well as in Iraq. Sinopec already has interests in Gabon and Sudan. Its parent, Sinopec Group, is wholly owned by the Chinese government. Sinopec, formally known as China Petroleum and Chemical Corp., is offering 52.80 Canadian dollars, or $46.12, per share for the remaining common shares of Addax. The Addax board has recommended that shareholders accept the agreement, and senior executives have signed onto a lock-up agreement to sell Sinopec their 38 percent stake in the company. In a separate statement, Sinopec executives called the deal a “transformational transaction” that would help it expand in West Africa and Iraq, in line with its strategic objectives. The Chinese company said that Addax’s offshore deep-water exploration projects were especially promising for its growth and development. The European Union and United States accused China of restricting the export of key raw materials used in the production of steel and other industrial products in a complaint filed Tuesday with the World Trade Organization. China defended the practice today on environmental and conservation grounds. ”China’s policies on these raw materials seem to put a giant thumb on the scale in favor of Chinese producers,” U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk said at a Tuesday news conference in Washington. ”The Chinese restrictions on raw materials distort competition and increase global prices, making things even more difficult for our companies in this economic downturn,” EU Trade Commissioner Catherine Ashton added. China defended its policies as necessary to “protect the environment and natural resources,” but said it would enter into consultation with the European Union and United States on the matter. Consultation is the first step in a WTO dispute resolution process.Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has refuted allegations that he paid prostitutes to attend parties he hosted at his various homes. In an interview with Italian magazine “Chi,” the 72-year old denied he had ever paid for sex. ”I’ve never paid a woman. I never understood where the satisfaction is when you’re missing the pleasure of conquest,” Berlusconi told Chi. According to Italian press agency ANSA, Berlusconi accused Patrizia D’Addario, the woman who alleges she was paid to spend the night with the premier in November, of being involved in a plan to make up false accusations against him. D’Addario last week told an Italian newspaper that a local businessman now being probed by magistrates paid her €1,000 ($1,408) to attend a dinner at Berlusconi’s Rome residence along with other young women, whom she described as a “harem“, and she was back a few weeks later to spend the night with the premier, Reuters.com reported. Berlusconi’s private life has been in the spotlight since his wife, filed for divorce in May following reports that her husband went to the birthday party in Naples of an 18-year-old girl. The prime minister denied having an inappropriate relationship with the girl.