Stuttgart - Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton expects next season's title race to be as difficult as this year's one.

The 23-year-old Briton managed to overtake Germany's Timo Glock on the final bend on the final lap of the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday to move to fifth place, thereby winning the title by one point from race winner Ferrari's Felipe Massa.

Speaking at the traditional Stars&Cars function in Stuttgart on Saturday - Hamilton greeted the 65,000 racing enthusiasts in German - the McLaren-Mercedes driver said that he will obviously try to repeat his success.

Stuttgart - Mercedes is introducing a new diesel engine generation this autumn starting with a four cylinder in the C 250 CDI that offers higher performance and lower fuel consumption, the car maker has announced.

The BlueEfficiency Prime Edition has an output of 150 kW/204 hp, accelerating from zero to 100 km/h in seven seconds on the way to a top speed of 250 km/h. At the same time, Mercedes lists an average fuel consumption of only 5.2 litres per 100 km with a carbon dioxide emission figure of 138 grams per kilometre.

Stuttgart - Porsche joined other German carmakers Saturday in announcing a temporary halt to production because of dwindling sales triggered by the global economic crisis.

A spokesman for the sports carmaker in Stuttgart said the company was extending the Christmas holiday period for workers by three days.

He said the company's main plant at Zuffenhausen would remained closed from December 22 until January 9, 2009.

Stuttgart, Germany - Germany's powerful metalworkers union said Friday it would launch at the weekend its biggest campaign of strikes ever for higher pay in manufacturing industry.

At 24-hour-per-day factories, hundreds of workers will skip a shift Saturday.

The union, IG Metall, said it would then ramp up the strikes late Sunday by calling out tens of thousands of workers.

That would idle manufacturing plants of Volkswagen's premium-car division Audi, with 4,000 workers expected to stop working at just one Audi plant, in Ingolstadt.

Stuttgart - Daimler is to idle factories for five weeks because world sales of its Mercedes cars have slumped, a newspaper reported on Sunday, quoting a company spokesman.

The report came as Germany's other main premium car manufacturer, BMW, announced a four-day standstill at one of its car plants, in Leipzig, eastern Germany, amid signs that the world recession will be worse than so far feared.

The Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung said the Mercedes closure would begin in mid-December, but gave no precise date. It said stocktaking would take place on December 12 and plants would not re-open before an annual holiday break at Christmas. Plants re-open on January 12.

Stuttgart - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck rejected Thursday a protest from Switzerland, two days after he said in Paris that the Alpine republic was not doing enough to stop tax evaders.

Speaking in Stuttgart, Steinbrueck, who oversaw Germany's rescue package last week for ailing banks, said, "I'll keep naming names." He said he would continue to be outspoken whenever "Germans are invited to evade taxes."

He criticized Berne for summoning the German ambassador to hear a protest over his Tuesday remarks.