Food Safety: Worst Councils Named And Shamed

Local councils that are failing to ensure food businesses comply with hygiene regulations have been named and shamed by a consumer watchdog.

The investigation into 395 local authorities by Which?, using data obtained from the Food Standards Agency (FSA), revealed more than a third of high and medium-risk food businesses are not complying with safety rules.

The hygiene risk of a business was based on the type of food, the number of consumers at risk, the method of processing and confidence in the management.

Local authority food checks are in decline according to the study

Local authority rankings were based upon criteria such as the number of premises compliant with hygiene requirements, the number of visits performed by council inspectors and the percentage of premises yet to receive a risk rating.

Bexley in London was exposed as the worst-performing local authority, with five further London councils appearing in the bottom 10, including Ealing, Enfield, Harrow, Richmond upon Thames and Southwark.

The study revealed that overall, food testing fell by 6.8% from the previous year, while testing for correct labelling and presentation fell by 16.2%.

The figures showed no hygiene sampling at all was carried out by Bexley, Christchurch, Isles of Scilly, Medway, Tamworth, West Lindsey and West Yorkshire authorities.

Which? executive director Richard Lloyd, said: "No one wants another horse meat fiasco, so it is very worrying that local authority food checks are in decline.

"We want to see a more strategic approach to food law enforcement that makes the best use of limited resources and responds effectively to the huge challenges facing the food supply chain."

But the Local Government Association defended local authorities it said were "working hard" to improve food hygiene standards in the face of government funding cuts.

The Local Government Association's regulation spokesman Nick Worth said: "Random sampling is just one tool available to councils and a reduction in testing does not mean an increased safety risk to the public.

"Targeting high-risk businesses and acting on complaints is a far more effective use of their limited resources and also allows councils to free up responsible businesses from unnecessary inspections and red tape."

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China: High-Speed Rail Network To Be Doubled

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent, in Beijing

China has announced it will spend £60bn this year in an effort to almost double the size of its high-speed rail network.

The investment forms part of a project which represents the largest and fastest rail expansion programme in the world.

Since 2008, and in the time Britain has taken only to debate the merits of one line - HS2 - which would be just over 100 miles long, China has built 6,000 miles of track, much of it elevated, and invested in 1,000 high-speed trains.

The network is currently almost double the combined length of Europe and Japan's railway networks.

The programme, the government says, forms a key part of the country's drive to modernise, urbanise and pull the Chinese people out of poverty.

Sky News took a ride on the 10am from Shanghai to Beijing. Bang on time, the shiny new bullet train pulled out of the city's Hongqiao station.

The train, 16 carriages long, has three classes: standard, first and business, which resembles the interior of an aeroplane.

China has built 6,000 miles of track since 2008

Sitting in a fully reclining airline-style seat is businessman Paul Zhou.

He said: "Our country is building an entire high-speed rail system and it has made our travel easier.

"It has shortened the journey between cities. It helps a lot on our work and life.

"On the airlines, there are always delays. They are very unreliable.

"I used to travel by plane, but now I almost always use our high-speed trains to go everywhere. They are comfortable, environmentally friendly, and always on time."

Out of the window the Chinese countryside is a blur as the train reaches its cruising speed of 190mph.

China now boasts the world's fastest conventional train. The CRH380A, manufactured by the Qingdao Sifang Company, has a top speed of 237mph, but in test runs it reached 302mph.

The trains run on a network of new lines, many of which are elevated. Together they knit together more than 100 cities across the country.

The country has the world's fastest train with a top speed of 237mph

Each of the cities has a vast new station. Most look more like airport terminals and they are packed - proof that this railway revolution has got China moving.

Another passenger, Zhao Changhua, is an office worker from the city of Jinan. She has just started commuting to Shanghai for work - a distance of 535 miles, but a journey time of just four hours.

She told Sky News: "It's very comfortable. It's convenient and fast. I'm very proud of it.

"It's the result of the fast development of our country's technology. It has given great benefits to our lives.

"This is my second time on a high-speed train, I think it's much easier than taking a plane.

"Airports are far away from the city centre while train stations are closer. So I choose high-speed trains."

The journey from Shanghai, west, then north, to Beijing is 800 miles - the length of the UK. It is completed in four hours, 48 minutes.

In second class, it costs the equivalent of £55, in first it is just under £100 and in business it costs £175.

Outside we see glimpses of rural China carved up by the new lines, but we also spot new cities springing up. It is evidence that the new rail network is stimulating the local economy at every stop.

Designer Roland Boal says the China network is a huge opportunity

Of all the passengers we spoke to, none had a bad word about the service. Most hoped that China could help the UK with its high-speed train development.

Mr Zhou said: "I hope the British government will use Chinese technology, let China help you to build your high-speed railway."

What none of the passengers realise is that the train they are on is actually designed, in part, with the help of a UK firm.

Priestmangoode is a design consultancy based in the UK but with a growing footprint in China. The company has combined the UK's flair for quality design with China's willingness to pay for it.

Roland Boal, head of Priestmangoode's China division, explained that China's "can do" attitude and seemingly bottomless pockets are a huge opportunity.

He told Sky News: "There is a hunger for new and exciting things. China is moving really fast and moving forward.

"There is a certain sense of excitement among people here and I think they want products that reflect that, whether it's a train or a plane.

"If it's a high-speed train, then make it look really fast. Not pared back; make it look fast.

"Western companies need to pay a lot more attention to what's happening here.

The country's high speed network runs on elevated lines

"I get very upset when I hear things like 'of course it broke, it was made in China' or 'I don't buy that company's products because they're made in China'. I think there is such an out-of-date attitude towards the obvious capability of manufacturing in China."

This railway revolution is not without significant controversy, though.

In 2011, two high-speed trains collided. Forty people were killed and 172 others injured.

Had the trains been travelling at full speed, the number of dead would have been significantly higher.

A signalling failure was blamed; the whole project was questioned and almost cancelled.

A further controversy stems from the fact that the technology behind the network is not Chinese.

In the early stages of the project, China bought high-speed train sets and technology from Canada's Bombardier, Japan's Kawasaki, Germany's Siemens and France's Alstom.

Chinese engineers then combined these technologies and produced their own trains.

Corruption has also plagued the project. In July last year, the country's railways minister, Liu Zhijun, was jailed for corruption, bribery and abuse of power. His demise brought the financial cost into focus.

At the last count, the existing project had cost £24bn through Chinese government loans, according to figures published in the Chinese state media.

The government hopes to recoup some of those costs by selling its success abroad.

China is in talks with countries including Romania, Georgia, Thailand, Burma and several in South America.

There is also a desire to help the US and the UK with their own projects.

The Chinese government, which runs the network through its Ministry of Transportation, declined our request for an interview for this report and refused Sky News all official access to their trains and stations. No reason was given.

The report was compiled without their agreement.

However, speaking to the Chinese media, and addressing the safety concerns, Deng Xiaojun, deputy chief engineer of Qingdao Sifang, one of the state-owned locomotive manufacturers, said that the trains are designed according to international standards and in some areas even stricter.

He told China's Xinhua news agency: "We have a rounded mechanism to ensure the train's safety operation."

Back on the train, and on time - almost to the second - the 10am from Shanghai pulls into Beijing South station. 

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Charter Bids $62bn For Time Warner Cable

Cable TV operator Charter Communications is planning to go direct to shareholders of Time Warner Cable in a bid to buy its larger rival in a deal worth over $62bn (£38bn), when debt is included.

The company said it was prepared to make an offer to investors after determining there was "no genuine intent" from Time Warner Cable's management to engage in merger talks.

Charter Communications said it has made repeated overtures to Time Warner for more than six months and had previously planned an offer below $135 per share, including $83-per-share in cash.

That values Time Warner at up to $38bn but the company had responded that the sum undervalued its business, Charter said.

Its statement said: "Time Warner Cable's response led Charter to determine there is no genuine intent from Time Warner Cable's management and Board of Directors to engage in a merger agreement, and that it is prudent to bring the matter to shareholders directly." 

Charter said in a letter to Time Warner Cable that the company had unrealistic price expectations and Goldman Sachs and Liontree Advisors were lead advisers on its bid.

Time Warner shares were up slightly from their closing price to $134.60 in after-hours market trades.

US cable television and internet titan Comcast is also seen as potential suitor of Time Warner Cable, which has been losing TV customers in a competitive US market.

A tie-up with Charter would create the third-largest pay TV operator.

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China Bets Big On 'Iron Bird' Of The Skies

By Mark Stone, China Correspondent in Shanghai

In a vast hanger on the outskirts of Shanghai, the banging of hammers and screeching of drills indicates a company in a hurry.

Sky News has been granted exclusive access to the headquarters of Comac - China's answer to Airbus and Boeing. The vast campus forms the heart of China's attempt to take on the aviation giants.

Comac was only founded five years ago and yet it has already produced one passenger jet and, within a decade, it hopes to be selling planes to western airlines including Ryanair and British Airways.

Jack Lee, a Comac executive, says: "This is a really exciting event for China. This is the first time in China's history that we have manufactured (passenger) aircraft by Chinese people.

"It's a challenge ahead of us. We already laid out our plan. The schedule is tight. We must fight for this schedule and fight for this milestone."

Mr Lee and I are sitting in the cockpit of a full-size model of the C919, Comac's equivalent to the workhorses of the skies, Boeing's 737 and Airbus' A320. This is the plane which Comac hopes will launch its global success.

The 'iron bird' test platform fuselage simulator at the Comac hanger

Mr Lee is Chinese by birth, but has spent most of his life living and working in the United States. His expertise from his previous career at General Electric and Raytheon are vital to the success of Comac.

The company is learning from mistakes and design failures made over decades by Boeing and Airbus in an attempt to get itself ahead.

"The advantage is that we have already learnt something from previous successful experiences or failures," says Mr Lee. "Lots of people here come from overseas and they bring lots of knowledge and talent.

"Also, there's lots of workers here and they work very hard."

The company is owned by the Chinese state who are as keen as Mr Lee that it is a success. The government recently pumped $3bn into the company and it has promised even more.

Taking on Boeing and Airbus is as much a project of national pride as it is a business necessity.

For China, taking on Boeing and Airbus is a project of national pride

"There are a few reasons," adds Mr Lee. "The first is that there are tremendous market needs. In the future we need more and more airlines and aircraft to serve our people.

"Also, we like to use aircraft industry as our sign to improve - because the aircraft industry is very complex - so the aircraft industry brings the whole Chinese industry to a higher level."

The C919 is the key to their success. The company initially gave itself six years to design, build and sell the C919. It should have been in our skies in 2014.

That deadline has now been pushed to the right a little. Staff have been asked to work longer hours to ensure it will be in the sky by 2015.

To the untrained eye, the C919 looks almost identical to the Airbus A320. It has the same wingspan and is almost the same length.

The new passenger jet will seat 190 passengers

Many of the components are the same too. The difference is that the C919 was designed and put together entirely in China by Chinese hands.

It seats 190 passengers, and if the real thing is anything like the replica we are in, the cabin will have a modern, airy feel. It feels a bit like a smaller version of Boeing's Dreamliner.

That's no surprise either, because Comac has learnt lots from the troubled Dreamliner project. They have cherry-picked all that worked and avoided the aspects which did not.

On the ground outside the replica C919 is the evidence this plane is essentially an outsourced airliner even if it is designed and built in China.

The massive wooden crates containing airline parts have been shipped from Europe and America. One has come from Miami, another from Germany.

The jet's engine interface control unit is likely to be made by a UK firm

The C919's power-supply system is made by America's UTC Aerospace; the on-board entertainment will be provided by Thales of France and the Engine Interface Control Unit will probably be made by a UK company called Meggitt.

Mr Lee is keen to talk about safety. It is, he says, natural that people will have concerns about Chinese-made passenger jets. After all, historically at least, China's record on safety and quality is not great.

"These will be as safe as any other aircraft in the sky - Boeing or Airbus," he insists, repeating himself. "The safety level is the same as other aircraft that fly in the sky. So very safe."

It is true that in order to fly, Comac will need to get approval from the US Federal Aviation Administration and the Chinese equivalent, the CAAC.

If the C919 passes those tests, then there is only one other obstacle in the way of success for Comac.

Even without American Federal Aviation approval, Comac can still sell its planes in the massive domestic market. The state-run Chinese airlines will probably be pushed to buy a Chinese-made plane.

Many of the C919's components are similar to those used by Airbus

But in order to succeed with the C919 abroad, Comac must make it cheaper and more efficient than the Boeing and Airbus equivalents. Mr Lee believes it will be, which is why there are already 400 orders for the C919.

There is no published price for the C919 yet, but speculation suggests it will be about $75m, which is $10m less than a B737 or an A320.

That has pricked the ears of one savvy Airline boss from Ireland - Ryanair CEO Michael O'Leary. At the 2011 Paris Airshow, Mr O'Leary signed a cooperation deal with Comac. He hopes the company will build him a bespoke passenger jet which will increase his profits.

Aviation rules stipulate that airlines must provide one flight attendant for every 50 passengers. So a plane with 200 passengers on board must have at least four flight attendants.

However, a plane with just 199 seats in it can legally have three flight attendants on board. Ryanair is reportedly interested in Comac's willingness to build a 199 seater jet.

Ryanair boss Michael O'Leary has signed a co-operation deal with Comac

On safety and passengers' willingness to fly on a jet made in China, Mr O'Leary is unconcerned, pointing out in a recent interview that 99% of his customers have no idea what model or make of plane they are travelling in.

Airbus has already shown its commitment to and belief in China. In 2009 it opened an assembly plant in the northern Chinese city of Tianjin. Chinese-constructed versions of its A320 have been rolling off the production line ever since.

The manager of the plant, German executive Andreas Ockel, gave Sky News an exclusive look inside the plant. He explained that China's aviation industry is now so huge, it is vital for Airbus to have a physical footprint here.

And on safety, he insists, the planes are identical, wherever they are put together.

"When you build an aircraft, safety is about what is designed into the process and into the aircraft itself," Mr Ockel says.

"What we have here is a process that's exactly the same as we have in Europe. You will not be able to differentiate a plane that comes out of here from any plane that comes out of Hamburg or Toulouse."

Back at the Comac plant, Mr Lee hints at just how far China has come in such a short time.

"I can't imagine," he says. "So few years, such tremendous changes, I couldn't have imagined it. And of course the next 30 years? Who knows!?"

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Homeserve Faces £34.5m 'Mis-selling' Fine

The emergency maintenance firm HomeServe has been told it faces a £34.5m fine amid a regulator's inquiry into alleged mis-selling and poor complaints handling.

The penalty - set to be imposed by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) following an 18-month investigation - is significantly higher than the company had expected.

HomeServe, which sells insurance for and fixes homeowners' boilers and burst pipes, had previously set aside £6m but confirmed on Monday a further provision of £30m to cover the costs of the fine.

On receipt of the FCA's Draft Warning Notice, the company said it was now engaging in discussions with the regulator to finalise the Notice.

HomeServe said the proposed penalty of £34.5m assumed an early settlement discount of 30% and it would not comment further until the talks were completed.

The company temporarily suspended telephone sales and launched a costly review into its marketing and training processes in October 2011 when it was accused of mis-selling policies to customers.

In April last year, HomeServe was fined £750,000 by Ofcom for breaching rules on silent and abandoned calls and the following month, the-then regulator the Financial Services Authority which was later replaced by the FCA, placed it under investigation.

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'Fracking' Councils Could Pocket Millions

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

Financial rewards worth more than £1m a year will be given to councils which give permission for fracking projects in their areas.

The move, announced by David Cameron, has angered campaign groups opposed to the controversial method of extracting shale gas from deep underground.

The Prime Minister has declared that shale gas exploration is part of his long-term economic plan and says local authorities that allow drilling will receive 100% of the business rates collected from the scheme - double the current 50%.

Whitehall officials estimate that could be worth £1.7m extra a year for each site a council agrees.

The move coincides with French energy giant Total announcing it is investing millions of pounds in firms with drilling licences in the UK.

Anti-fracking protesters at a rally at a driling site in Salford on Sunday

The news is a blow for hundreds of people who object to fracking in their communities.

On Sunday, protesters from across the country took part in a march in Salford close to an exploratory drilling site in an area known as Barton Moss.

Among the campaigners was Jackie Anderson, a teacher who lives within a mile of the site.

She told Sky News: "For the local residents it's got no benefit whatsoever. More and more the businesses and the councils are going to benefit because the incentives are going to them and we're getting none of the benefits at all."

Hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as fracking, is a process that involves drilling thousands of feet down into the earth to create a narrow well. Water and chemicals are then pumped in at high pressure to create fractures in the rock. Gas then flows from the cracks and is captured.

Vanessa Vine, who founded the British Anti-Fracking Action Network, travelled to Salford for the demonstration.

She has taken part in a long-running protest against a test site near her home in Balcombe, West Sussex.

The protest was against an exploratory drilling site known as Barton Moss

She told Sky News: "Concerns of local residents range from everything from heavy traffic through villages, damage to the roads, right up to triggering of earthquakes and permanent, potentially permanent contamination of the groundwater, of the aquifer, of drinking water."

The Government estimates the industry could attract £3.7bn a year in investment and support 74,000 jobs.

Last year, new data from the British Geological Survey showed up to double the amount of shale gas could be extracted in the UK than previously thought.

Then, the Government pledged to give local communities £100,000 for each test-drilling project and a further 1% of the revenues if shale gas was discovered.

It is thought there may be as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet at the Bowland site in Lancashire alone.

Tory peer Lord Howell of Guildford sparked anger in northern communities in July by suggesting fracking should take place in "desolate areas" in the north, a comment for which he later apologised.

Announcing the latest financial incentives, David Cameron said: "A key part of our long-term economic plan to secure Britain's future is to back businesses with better infrastructure.

Vanessa Vine, founder of the British Anti-Fracking Action Network

"That's why we're going all out for shale. It will mean more jobs and opportunities for people, and economic security for our country."

Writing in the Sun on Sunday, business minister Michael Fallon said it could "drive down the cost of power for hard-working families and businesses".

But environmentalists have dismissed those claims.

Lawrence Carter, from Greenpeace, said: "This is a naked attempt by the government to bribe hard-pressed councils into accepting fracking in their area.

"Cameron is effectively telling councils to ignore the risks and threat of large-scale industrialisation in exchange for cold hard cash.

"But the proposal reveals just how worried the Government is about planning applications being turned down.

"Having had their claims that fracking will bring down energy bills and create jobs thoroughly discredited, the Government is now resorting to straight up bribery to sell their deeply unpopular fracking policy."

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Wall Street Giants To Aid £1bn Travelex Sale

By Mark Kleinman, City Editor

The foreign currency provider Travelex has enlisted a pair of Wall Street titans to aid a plan that will involve a £1bn sale or flotation during 2014.

Sky News understands that Travelex has drafted in Goldman Sachs and JP Morgan to work on a deal that could value the stake held by the company's founder, Lloyd Dorfman, at £300m or more.

While a transaction is not imminent, insiders said that the appointment of the two investment banks was a signal that one was likely this year.

Apax Partners, the private equity group, has owned a controlling stake in Travelex since 2005 and is keen to offload its stake, on which it will augment an already handsome profit.

City sources said that JP Morgan was focusing on an initial public offering that would see Travelex make its stock market debut, while Goldman Sachs has been asked to field approaches from potential buyers of the company in addition to assisting with a flotation.

Rothschild was brought in last autumn to help evaluate options for the business.

A stock market listing, which would probably see Travelex join the FTSE-250 index of the public companies ranked between 101 and 350 by size on the London markets, remains the company's preferred route, the sources added.

Travelex was set up in 1976 by Mr Dorfman, who remains its chairman and second-largest shareholder. Mr Dorfman is one of Britain's most successful entrepreneurs, and is thought likely to remain on the board if it decides to pursue a listing.

Travelex has been reshaped since Peter Jackson, its chief executive, was recruited from Lloyds Banking Group in 2010, with the sale of its card management and global payments operations for an aggregate total of nearly £1bn.

Mr Jackson said last year that trading during the crucial summer period had been strong, and the business is understood to have continued to perform well since then.

A Travelex spokesman declined to comment.

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Snow-Hit Sheep Farmers Fear Worse Is To Come

By Becky Johnson, North of England Correspondent

Farmers will have to prepare for the impact of more extreme weather on livestock and crops, according to the National Farmers Union.

The Union's deputy president has told Sky News he believes climate change may be to blame for unseasonal conditions like the damaging spring snowfall in 2013.

Meurig Raymond told Sky News: "The industry is facing the volatility of weather - maybe climate change. So feeding the world is going to be important going forward. We as farmers have to face up to that, but wake up for society as well."

His comments come as farmers say it will take years to recover financially from losses suffered during the coldest spring in 50 years.

Months on from snowfall that struck during lambing season, farmers have told Sky News their industry is still reeling from the heavy losses of livestock.

On the hills above Llanfairfechan in North Wales farmer Gareth Wyn Jones feeds the sheep that survived the heavy snow.

In March and April he spent weeks digging through feet of snow to recover the bodies of sheep and lambs that had perished.

Farmer Gareth Wyn Jones tends to his livestock in North Wales

Now, on a cold, sunny winter morning he surveys the surrounding hillsides that offer a stunning view across the Irish Sea.

He says the snow came at the worst possible time for sheep farmers. Most of the animals that died were new born lambs.

He estimates hundreds died on his farm alone.

"We lost about eighty breeding ewes and we lost a hundred ponies but we were fortunate - we dug eighty or ninety ewes out. A neighbour of ours lost half his hill flock overnight - gone," he said.

"There are some massive losses just in this little valley in North Wales."

Farmers in Northern Ireland, Scotland, Shropshire, Cumbria, Yorkshire and the Isle of Man also lost thousands of sheep and lambs.

The number of deaths forced the Welsh Assembly and Defra to temporarily relax strict EU rules that prevent farmers from burying dead animals. Usually farmers have to pay for carcasses to be removed.

Hundreds of sheep have been lost due to bad weather

Since the snowfall Defra says it has been working with farmers and  the insurance industry to ensure farmers are protected for future weather events.

They have also been working with the Met Office to publish detailed weather forecasts for farmers.

Joanne Briggs, from the National Sheep Association, told Sky News: "The time it will take for affected sheep farms to recover cannot be underestimated - it's not just the financial implications, which will take at least two or three years for business to overcome, but the loss of genetics from their flocks.

"Some bloodlines can never be replaced and that can mean a backward step of a decade or more for elite pedigrees.

"Like the animals that they care for, sheep farmers in general are incredibly resilient, but the spring of 2013 came at the end of an incredibly difficult 12 months and will leave a legacy for many years to come.

"But everyone can do their bit to support them, by making sure that when they buy lamb it is sourced from the UK."

Back on the farm in North Wales Mr Wyn Jones keeps an anxious eye on the long-term forecast.

He says he's not sure if they could cope with another spring snowfall. Most of his ewes are pregnant again and he's counting on the lambs due to be born this spring to help rebuild his livelihood.

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Ski Hosting Ban: British Company Leads Appeal

By Harriet Hadfield, Sky News Reporter

A British ski holiday company is leading an appeal against a ban on ski hosting in the French Alps.

The appeal comes after a court in Albertville in France said that the informal on-piste group tours led by ski reps are illegal.

The judge ruled that all future hosts must be fully qualified ski instructors certified by the notoriously tough French examining system.

Yorkshire-based Le Ski has joined forces with 12 other British tour operators to argue that the decision is in breach of European law.

Nick Morgan from Le Ski told Sky News: "I think that somebody somewhere has gone a little bit too far in the formation of the law and we are hoping that that is seen by the appeal court and if not is taken up by the European Court in Luxembourg."

In 2012 a ski rep was arrested on the piste and the company was then prosecuted for compromising safety.

Some British skiers say they miss the social side of skiing in a group

Simon Atkinson from the French Ski School says: "Even when they say they're only there to help them round the slopes, the people who are on holiday actually do think that they're responsible for them.

"So when they go on to the slopes, they put their whole confidence in that person to take them round and they follow them."

Some British skiers on holiday in Courchevel told Sky News they are missing the social side of skiing in a group this season.

Julie Tate said: "I miss the guiding more than I thought I would, it's really important to me because I come skiing by myself and skiing with a small group of people with a guide is a really good way to get to know people on the slopes."

John Willis explained: "Rather than spend all day looking at the map and planning my route, the guide used to be there and I could follow them. I'm totally lost without them."

The next step in the legal process will be an appeal heard in a French court in Chambery.

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US Sees Weak New Job Gains In December

The US economy added 74,000 new jobs in December, a level far below analysts' expections.

The figure takes unemployment to a five-year low, but industry experts had expected the US economy to add 197,000 new jobs last month.

The job creation figure, released by the Labor Department, is watched closely as a sign of the economy's health.

Meanwhile, the unemployment rate in the world's biggest advanced economy dropped to 6.7% - because fewer people were seeking work.

Foreign currencies, such as sterling, immediately strengthened against the dollar.

Analysts played down fears that the lower than expected rate of growth was a sign that the economy is stalling.

Joel Naroff, president of Naroff Economic Advisors, said: "I don't think the Fed is going to be panicked by this."

Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at brokerage firm BTIG, said: "We stop short of making larger observations based on this number.

"The economy, based on any number of other indicators, has been picking up steam of late which makes today's number ... curious."

The leisure, manufacturing and services sectors all added jobs in December.

But the construction sector shed 16,000 jobs - the biggest drop in 20 months - during a month when much of the country experienced bad weather.

The overall outlook for the US economy remains positive, with recent figures for consumer spending and industrial output strong.

The economy is predicted to grow by 3% in 2014, up on 1.7% last year.

The Federal Reserve responded to recent positive signs by announcing last month that it would start "tapering" its monetary stimulus programme by $10bn, from $85bn to $75bn.

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