Brussels  - Ah, the style of an Italian Ferrari, the solidity of a German Mercedes, the flair of a French Renault!

The car industry is not only Europe's pride and joy, it provides income for some 12 million families and last year generated a combined turnover of 551 billion euros (700 billion dollars), or about 5 per cent of the continent's gross domestic product (GDP).

One in every three cars sold around the world is European.

But now, caught between the global credit crunch, a recession and the need to make greener vehicles, Europe's automobile industry says it is facing its most difficult moment since the oil crisis of the early 1970s.

New Delhi - Europe's largest car maker Volkswagen said Tuesday it would go ahead with its investment plans in India and was optimistic that car sales would pick up, news reports said.

Volkswagen had earlier announced it would invest 500 million Euros (about 632 million dollars) for its factory in the southern Indian city of Pune.

Tokyo - Mazda Motor Corp plans to buy back a 20-per-cent stake from Ford Motor Co during Wednesday trading at the Tokyo Stock Exchange, the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

With Mazda's buyback, Ford's stake would reduce to 13 per cent from the current 33.4 per cent in order to raise funds by selling Mazda shares.

Mazda was expected to purchase 96.8 million shares for 184 yen per share, worth a total of about 17.9 billion yen (185.18 million dollars), the company said.

But the two companies would continue their 30-year business partnership while keeping their joint ventures, Mazda said.

Stockholm - Swedish heavy-vehicle maker Volvo Tuesday reported a 12-per-cent drop in year-on-year deliveries of trucks in October.

Gothenburg-based Volvo said it delivered 22,136 trucks during the month.

Citing the prevailing financial uncertainty, the group said "customers continue to be very cautious and are in many cases waiting with their investment decisions."

Demand continued to be weak in Europe and North America, but also in other markets, Volvo said.

In Europe deliveries dropped 28 per cent in October while they fell 21 per cent in North America.

Tokyo  - Suzuki Motors Corp bought back its 3.02-per-cent stake from the US auto giant General Motors Crop (GM), the Japanese automaker said Tuesday.

The purchase of all the 16,413,000 shares came to about 22.37 billion yen (230.7 million dollars), Suzuki said.

Suzuki now owns about 20 per cent of its own outstanding shares, while GM lost its ownership in Suzuki, ending a 27-year investment.

The two automakers would continue joint projects such as development of hybrid cars, fuel cells and power trains.

Washington  - The White House and Congressional Democrats agreed Monday that something must be done to rescue the US automotive industry, but they were far apart on how to get there.

Congressional Democrats appeared intent on taking 25 billion dollars from the 700-billion-dollar emergency bail-out legislation to help the industry, and were formulating further legislation expected to be introduced later Monday.