9 By Michael Wei and Ben Blanchard

BEIJING (Reuters) – Toyota Motor Corp President Akio Toyoda sought to ease quality concerns during a low-key visit to China on Monday, fresh from a grueling hearing in the U.S. Congress over his company's biggest safety crisis.

Toyoda flew directly from the United States to China to meet with government officials and local reporters, according to media reports, underscoring the importance of an auto market that surpassed the United States last year to become the world's largest.

"He's making this trip because China has become the biggest auto market, in which Toyota underperformed last year, from low-end products to high-end ones, such as Lexus," said IHS Global Insight analyst John Zeng.

SINGAPORE – Oil prices rose above $80 a barrel Monday in Asia as crude traders followed regional stock markets higher.

Benchmark crude for April delivery was up 56 cents to $80.22 a barrel at midday Singapore time in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The contract added $1.49 to settle at $79.66.

Oil traders, who often look to equities as a measure of overall investor sentiment, were cheered by a jump in all the major Asian stock indexes Monday amid recent signs that Asian manufacturing is recovering from last year's slump.

NEW YORK – One runway, a whole lot of problems.

The main runway at New York's John F. Kennedy International will be closed for four months starting March 1. Millions of travelers will experience delays — including some not flying anywhere near the Big Apple.

With about one-third of JFK's traffic and half of its departures being diverted to three smaller runways, planes will wait on longer lines on the ground for takeoffs and in the air for landings. Delays at one of the nation's largest airports will ripple to cities across the U.S., including Los Angeles, San Francisco and Orlando.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Two key Republicans are urging the House of Representatives to speed up a public hearing to investigate the administration's bailout of home funding giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

In a letter dated March 1, Rep. Darrell Issa, ranking member of the Committee on Oversight and Government Report, and Jim Jordan, ranking member of the Subcommittee on Domestic Policy, criticized Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner's statement last week that specific legislative proposals to overhaul the two companies were unlikely before 2011.

WASHINGTON – The White House called for a 'simple up-or-down' vote on health care legislation Sunday as Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed to House Democrats to get behind President Barack Obama's chief domestic priority even it if threatens their political careers.

In voicing support for a simple majority vote, White House health reform director Nancy-Ann DeParle signaled Obama's intention to push the Democratic-crafted bill under Senate rules that would overcome GOP stalling tactics.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – American International Group Inc (AIG.N) agreed to a $35.5 billion sale of its Asian life insurance unit to Britain's Prudential Plc (PRU.L), in a deal that would allow the insurer to repay the U.S. government a substantial amount of its taxpayer bailout debt, sources familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

The board of AIG approved the sale of American International Assurance (AIA) to Prudential, Britain's largest insurer, and the two sides are working on announcing a deal, the sources said.

ATHENS (AFP) – Chancellor Angela Merkel Sunday dismissed talk of a German rescue plan for Greece's ailing economy, as Athens braced for an EU audit that could usher in new austerity cuts to tackle its massive debt crisis.

Greek bond prices rallied this week on a report that Europe's top economy was considering coming to the aid of debt-burdened Greece, as Prime Minister George Papandreou prepares to hold talks with Merkel in Berlin on Friday.

TAIPEI, Taiwan – Early last year, a Chinese company placed an order with a Taiwanese agent for 108 nuclear-related pressure gauges. But something happened along the way. Paperwork was backdated. Plans were rerouted, orders reconfigured, shipping redirected.

And the gauges ended up in a very different place: Iran.

The story behind the gauges shows how Iran is finding its way around international sanctions meant to prevent it from getting equipment that can be used to make a nuclear bomb. At least half a dozen times in recent years, the Persian Gulf nation has tried to use third countries as transshipment points for obtaining controlled, nuclear-related equipment.

BERLIN (AFP) – Ailing carmaker Opel is considering launching an electric car for inner-city use to tap what it sees as a high-potential market, the firm's boss said in an interview Sunday.

"We are thinking about a small electric vehicle," the chief of the General Motors unit, Nick Reilly, told Germany's Bild am Sonntag newspaper.

"We believe there is strong potential for growth in cities across the world," he added, predicting that "various governments are going to provide fiscal support for this kind of vehicle."

NEW YORK (Reuters) – American International Group Inc's (AIG.N) board approved the sale of its Asian life insurance business to Britain's Prudential Plc (PRU.L) for $35.5 billion, a source familiar with the matter said on Sunday.

Prudential, Britain's largest insurer, will pay about $25 billion in cash and the rest in equity, which could include preferred stock, for AIG's American International Assurance (AIA), the source said, declining to be identified because the deal is not public yet.