French car maker Renault saw its profits crumble last year despite a hefty one-off gain on the sale of its shares in Swedish truck maker AB Volvo.

Swedish truck-maker AB Volvo says it will sell its aeronautic unit Aero to British engineering group GKN for 6.9 billion kronor (€792.2m) in a move to focus more on its core heavy vehicle operations.

RUSSIAN officials yesterday furiously denied allegations linking companies and politicians to corruption in the UN oil-for-food programme for Iraq, saying that the report implicating them relied upon forgeries and false statements.

AB Volvo's resigning chairman Lars Ramqvist revealed he resigned after losing the confidence of several institutional investors.