LONDON - GROUPS Representing Britain's car industry said on Wednesday they had urged the government to help bolster the ailing sector, partly by increasing access to credit.

The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), and the Retail Motor Industry Federation (RMIF) said in a statement they had written to finance minister Alistair Darling and business secretary Peter Mandelson 'regarding the impact of the current economic crisis on the UK motor industry.

NEW YORK - WALL Street edged lower Wednesday, as investors, already nervous about the fate of the top US automakers, scoured more discouraging economic data.

Investors vacillated in early trading, trying to hold on to the gains achieved in the previous session. But they found little consolation in new reports on consumer prices and new-home construction, which provided more evidence that the economy remains in flux.

WASHINGTON - CONSUMER prices in the US plunged by the largest amount in the past 61 years in October as gasoline pump prices dropped by a record amount.

The Labor Department said on Wednesday that consumer prices fell 1 per cent last month, the biggest one-month decline on records that go back to February 1947. The drop was twice as large as the 0.5 per cent decline analysts expected.