But it would be premature to say that FDI is now on a strong rebound, the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in its quarterly Global Investment Trends Monitor.

Increases in FDI, on which many developing countries rely for growth, generally trails economic growth by at least two quarters, according to the agency.

Global investment flows fell by nearly two fifths last year, UNCTAD said in January.

The pickup in the global economy since mid-2009 suggests that multinational companies may be returning to more ambitious international investment programs, the latest report said.

One sign was a marked growth in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, which practically doubled in the first quarter of this year to almost $100 billion from the low levels of the previous quarter.

These included several mergers worth more than $3 billion in telecoms, pharmaceuticals and food, led by the $7.6 billion acquisition of Belgium's Solvay by Abbott Laboratories of the United States, UNCTAD added.

However, the number of investments in greenfield projects fell slightly to about 3,000 in the first quarter, indicating that multinationals remain cautious about international investments and that there is no clear FDI trend, it said.

The level of FDI flows stabilized in the fourth quarter of last year, with UNCTAD's quarterly FDI index at 117.4 after 117.5 in the third quarter and still almost half the 218.5 seen in the first quarter of 2008 before the crisis burst.

Only a few economies, including China, Hong Kong, Ireland and Norway, received more FDI inflows in the fourth quarter of 2009 than on average in 2007, the report said.