British Prime Minister David Cameron faced searching questions Saturday over his veto of a new EU treaty to solve the Eurozone crisis, despite receiving a hero's welcome from his party's lawmakers.

Cameron hosted a dinner for a number of Conservative MPs on Friday night at his country residence after he returned from a summit in Brussels where he took the historic step, his Downing Street office told Agence France Presse.

Japan is extending tax breaks for low-polluting vehicles by another three years to help support the nation's mainstay auto industry.

The tax breaks, initially set to end in April, will continue until April 2015, according to a plan approved by the Cabinet on Saturday.

China's exports slowed in November, data released Saturday showed, raising the likelihood of further measures from Beijing to help prop up faltering growth and offset slack demand in the U.S. and European markets.

Exports rose 13.8 percent to $174.5 billion in November, a decline from 15.9 percent growth in October, while China's overall trade surplus plunged 35 percent from a year earlier, to $14.5 billion, Customs statistics said. Imports gained 22.1 percent to $159.9 billion, down from the previous month's 28.7 percent rise.

The leaders of 23 European countries moved to tie their economies much closer together in a new treaty in their latest attempt to shore up the euro, but failed to get the four other European Union members, including Britain, to join in.

Following marathon all-night talks, the 23 decided to back a new treaty with strict oversight over national budgets, as they try to convince markets that the euro has a future in the wake of a crippling debt crisis.

Republicans and Democrats determined to look tough on Iran and avoid any election-year challenges to their pro-Israel bona fides are rebuffing Obama administration pleas to ease proposed penalties on Iran's central bank.

The administration argues that the crippling penalties would undercut a carefully calibrated international effort targeting Tehran and would drive up oil prices, a potential economic boon that would help finance Iran's suspected pursuit of a nuclear weapon while hitting cash-strapped Americans at the gas pump.

Toyota slashed its full-year net profit forecast on Friday by more than half as Japan's biggest automaker grapples with a strong yen, the impact of the March earthquake and record flooding in Thailand.

The company cut its profit outlook to 180 billion yen ($2.3 billion), well down from its August estimate of a 390 billion yen net profit, which was pared after the Thai floods forced plant closures and caused supply-chain problems.

Nokia, facing fierce competition to remain the world's top mobile phone maker, plans to sell its luxury unit Vertu that makes niche handsets, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.

No buyer was mentioned and the sale is still in the early stages, the newspaper said, noting that Vertu has yet to be given a value though annual revenue is estimated to be between 200 and 300 million euros ($268-402 million).

A letter bomb sent to Deutsche Bank Chief Josef Ackermann was "operational" and could have exploded, German state police said Thursday after the envelope was intercepted.

"Preliminary investigations show it is an operational letter bomb," police in Hesse, the western state where Deutsche Bank's Frankfurt headquarters is located, said in a statement.

The United States has a "very strong interest" in a successful outcome from the European Union summit starting later on Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said during a visit to Italy.

"The U.S. and the world economy as a whole has a very strong interest in the success" of the summit, Geithner said following talks with Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti in Milan and after visits to France and Germany.

The government of Dubai has quashed reports that it plans to restructure billions of dollars of maturing debt next year, but said that "refinancing" part of the debt was a "possibility."

"Reports about a plan by Dubai to restructure part of debt maturing in 2012 on government-related companies are untrue," head of the higher committee for financial policies Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum said in a statement released late on Wednesday.