Volkswagen earnings more than double

Volkswagen’s annual profit more than doubled in 2006, with a gain on the sale of a car rental business helping to offset steep restructuring costs, including thousands of job cuts.

The German automaker said it earned 2.75 billion euros ($3.61 billion) in 2006, compared with 1.12 billion euros in 2005.

Sales rose 11% to 104.9 billion euros from 94 billion euros a year earlier.