Berlin  - The German government agreed Thursday to take a 25 per cent stake in the country's second biggest bank, Commerzbank, in return for providing a fresh infusion of capital.

Commerzbank said the state rescue fund for the banking sector, Soffin, would make available 10 billion euros (13.56 billion dollars) in addition to the 8.2 billion euros it provided in November.

Berlin  - The German government will take a 25 per cent cent stake plus one share in one of the country's leading banks, Commerzbank, sources told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa on Thursday.

The newspaper Die Welt said the move was in return for a 10 billion-euro (13.56 billion dollars) injection of capital.

Earlier in the day, Commerzbank became the first German lender to issue a bond backed by state guarantees. The bank set the size of the bond at 5 billion euros.

Berlin - Germany is caught in the midst of a gloomy economic winter with the government attempting to hammer together a new stimulus package while a slew of fresh data underscores a deepening recession taking hold in Europe's biggest economy.

Figures released this week showing a dramatic 10.6 per cent plunge in German exports in November along with a hefty drop in factory orders and a bigger-than-forecast rise in December unemployment point to the economic downturn rapidly gaining ground.

Berlin - German factory orders plummeted by a hefty 6 per cent in November, the nation's Economics and Technology Ministry said, underscoring the deepening sense of gloom in Europe's biggest economy as last year came to an end.

The seasonally adjusted fall in the nation's key industrial orders in November was far more than the 1.6 per cent that analysts had forecast and followed the release of figures also published Thursday showing a dramatic 10.6-per-cent plunge in exports in November.

Berlin - German carmaker Audi reported higher sales for 2008 on Thursday, bucking a trend which has seen most of its rivals suffer because of the global economic downturn.

The company said it sold slightly more than 1 million vehicles last year, an increase of 4.1 per cent over 2007. In December, sales were up 17.4 per cent over the same month of the previous year.

Audi, a subsidiary of Europe's biggest carmaker, Volkswagen, said a range of new models, including the A4 saloon car and the sports utility vehicle Q5, contributed to the boost in sales.

Berlin - The economic mood in Europe fell to a record low in December, key figures released Thursday showed, as the slump in the global economy gained momentum.

The European Commission said its closely watched economic sentiment indicator (ESI) for the 15-member eurozone fell from 74.9 in November to 67.1.

This was the indictor's lowest level since it was launched in 1985 and adds to the pressure on the European Central Bank (ECB) to continue cutting interest rates.