Japanese giant Toyota tops GM in sales as the world's number one

Figures from the companies showed Toyota ended General Motors 77-year reign as the world's biggest automaker last year, selling 8.97 million vehicles against GM's 8.35 million.

But both makers suffered from weak demand, AFP said, adding that GM's sales tumbled 11 percent while Toyota saw a four percent drop in global demand -- the Japanese group’s first decline in a decade.

"Toyota's rise to the top wasn't really positive because it was achieved not by growth in sales but by a sharper decline in GM's sales," AFP quoted Mamoru Kato, an auto analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Centre as saying.

"The gap between the sales of Toyota and GM will probably expand for a few years because of growth in the market for environmentally-friendly cars where Toyota has a lead with its hybrids," he added.

GM recently received a loan of more than $13 billion from the U.S. government, which the automaker had said without; it was in danger of collapsing.

GM blamed its declining sales on the economic recession and tight credit markets in North America and Europe.Â

Toyota has also been hurt by the global economic downturn. The auto giant announced Tuesday that its auto sales fell by 4 percent in 2008.

Toyota has been gaining on GM for years. In 2007, GM only outsold Toyota by about 3,000 vehicles.