Stockholm - Volvo Cars, the Swedish subsidiary of US carmaker Ford, is to assemble fewer cars in the coming two months, reports said Friday.

The decision by management of the Gothenburg-based carmaker was to avert a build-up of unsold vehicles, and production was estimated at 5,000 cars per month for January and February, the Goteborgs-Posten newspaper reported.

"It is still tough and we do not see any major turnaround of orders," Volvo Cars spokeswoman Maria Bohlin told the paper but she did not confirm the paper's production figure.

Stockholm - Mobile telephone maker Sony Ericsson on Friday reported a fourth-quarter loss and lower sales, describing the 2008 business year as "tumultuous" in the wake of the global economic downturn.

The group posted a pre-tax loss excluding restructuring costs of 133 million euros (174 million dollars) for the quarter, compared to a pre-tax profit of 501 million euros for the corresponding business period in 2007.

Restructuring costs in the quarter were 129 million euros.

Stockholm - Sweden, one of the major donors to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNWRA) that assists Palestininan refugees in the Gaza Strip and West Bank, on Thursday criticized the Israeli attack on the UN compound in Gaza.

"It is completely unacceptable that UNWRA, the UN's main humanitarian actor in Gaza is attacked in this manner," Swedish International Development Cooperation Minister Gunilla Carlsson said.

Reports suggested that the shells hit the compound earlier Thursday.

Stockholm - The ceremony to mark the bicentenary of the separation in 1809 of Finland and Sweden got under way in Stockholm Thursday in the presence of Swedish King Carl Gustaf and Finnish President Tarja Halonen.

The year 1809 has different connotations in the two countries - if remembered at all as a historic date, as several speakers and historians have observed.

Stockholm - Two Japanese researchers and an American were Thursday named winners of the 2009 Crafoord Prize for the discovery of two signal substances in the immune system that are linked to autoimmune diseases, the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences said.

Tadamitsu Kishimoto, Toshio Hirano and Charles Dinarello were cited for "for their pioneering work to isolate interleukins, determine their properties and explore their role in the onset of inflammatory diseases."

The three jointly share the prize, worth 500,000 dollars.

During the 1970s and 1980s they isolated two signal substances - interleukins - in the immune system known as IL-1 and IL-6. The substances are released from white blood cells.

Stockholm- Swedish King Carl Gustaf is to pay a state visit to Italy along with Queen Silvia in March, the royal palace and Swedish foreign ministry said Wednesday.

The royals were to be accompanied by Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and a delegation of Swedish business leaders.

Swedish State Secretary Frank Belfrage said the March 24-27 visit offered "an opportunity to deepen relations and to discuss concrete projects."

Signhild Arnegard Hansen, chairwoman of the confederation of Swedish Enterprise, said some 20 companies were to accompany the royals and attend a seminar in Milan.