European share prices suffered steep falls on Friday as oil prices climbed and US automaking giant General Motors reported a huge loss.
  
In London the FTSE 100 index shed 1.06 percent to end the week at 5,354.70, while in Paris the CAC 40 lost 1.78 percent to close at 4,314.34. The Frankfurt Dax fell 1.28 percent to finish at 6,396.46.
  
The Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone companies was down 1.52 percent at the close of trade at 3,316.61 points.
  
US stocks were lower Friday as General Motors reported a whopping 15.5-billion-dollar quarterly loss and as a government report showed employers cut 51,000 jobs in July.
  
GM had warned investors to brace for further losses, but the extent of its second quarter shortfall was worse than analysts had expected.
  
A weak job snapshot meanwhile confirmed that the world's biggest economy was struggling to shake off a housing slump, a credit crunch and high oil prices.
  
The Dow Jones Industrial Average had fallen 0.58 percent to 11,312.15 by mid-day. The tech-rich Nasdaq composite had lost 0.81 to reach 2,298.04.
  
Analysts said the Labor Department's monthly survey on the US job market was downbeat but not as bad as feared. Most economists had expected employers to shed 75,000 jobs last month.
  
The unemployment rate, however, jumped to 5.7 percent in July from 5.5 in the prior month, marking its highest level in four years.
  
In Europe market sentiment was roiled late in the trading session by renewed tension in the standoff between Iran and several western powers, notably the United States, over Tehran's nuclear program.
  
Washington set a weekend deadline for Iran to answer an international offer to freeze its nuclear drive and warned of new sanctions if it rejected the package.
  
Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki had insisted Thursday there was no deadline and that his country had already replied.
  
Oil prices later surged higher as New York's main contract, light sweet crude for September delivery, leapt as high as 128.60 dollars per barrel, before pulling back to stand at 126.76, up 2.68 dollars from Thursday's close.
  
In London nuclear power provider British Energy fell 4.04 percent to 700 pence on news that merger talks with EDF of France had yielded no agreement.
  
Mining issues suffered from fears of a worldwide slowdown, accentuated by the dismal news from GM.
  
Xstrata lost 5.49 percent to close at 3,446 pence while BHP Billiton fell 5.20 percent to 1,605 pence.
  
In Paris EDF shed 3.13 percent to finish at 54.20 euros on the breakdown in its talks with British Energy.
  
Cement group Lafarge lost 7.85 percent to reach 80.91 euros after offering no prospects for its earnings performance over the rest of the year.
  
In Frankfurt automaker BMW tumbled 5.36 percent to 27.36 euros after warning that it would not meet its financial targets this year because of the weakness of the dollar, a lackluster auto market and the high cost of oil.
  
Elsewhere in the sector Volkswagen fell 4.05 percent to 196.46 euros and Daimler lost 1.85 percent to finish at 36.64 euros.
  
Elsewhere in Europe there were declines of 0.36 percent to 2,983.55 on the Bel-20 in Brussels, 0.71 percent to 28,130 on the SP/Mib in Milan and 2.62 percent to 11,569.50 on the Ibex-35 in Madrid.
  
Asian shares closed mostly down Friday after weaker than expected US data and disappointing corporate profit figures indicating that firms are feeling the chill from a cooling world economy.