WASHINGTON — The unemployment rate dipped to 4.5 percent and workers got fatter paychecks in February, even as bad winter weather sent a bit of a chill through U.S. job growth.

The latest employment picture, released by the Labor Department today, suggested employers are holding up well and opportunities continue for jobseekers as the economy deals with a sluggish spell, a housing slump and troubles in the automotive industry.

Employers — both private companies and the government — added a total of 97,000 new jobs to their payrolls in February, the fewest in two years. Lousy winter weather was blamed for much of the slower job growth.

Construction companies — already feeling the strain of the ailing housing market — slashed 62,000 jobs in February, the most in 16 years, as nasty weather hit many parts of the country.

DEMAND FOR CORN DRIVES UP MEAT COSTS

WASHINGTON — Strong demand for corn from ethanol plants is driving up the cost of livestock and will raise prices for beef, pork and chicken, the Agriculture Department said today.

Meat and poultry production will fall as producers face higher feed costs, the department said in its monthly crop report. Ethanol fuel, which is blended with gasoline, is consuming 20 percent of last year's corn crop and is expected to gobble up more than 25 percent of this year's crop.

The price of corn, the main feed for livestock, has driven the cost of feeding chickens up 40 percent, according to the National Chicken Council. The council says that chicken, the most popular meat with consumers, will soon cost more at the grocery store. The industry worries the competition from ethanol could cause a shortage of corn.

CHINA CREATING INVESTMENT FUND

BEIJING — China will soon create one of the world's largest investment funds, with ramifications for global stock, bond and commodities markets and for how the U.S. finances its trade deficits.

Finance Minister Jin Renqing said today the aim is to make more profitable use of its $1 trillion in foreign currency reserves that have piled up as it posted huge trade surpluses year after year. Most of those funds are now parked in safe, but relatively low-yielding U.S. Treasury securities and other dollar-denominated assets.

Jin said Beijing may follow the lead of Singapore's Temasek Holdings, which manages nearly $90 billion in government pension funds and other assets. It owns stakes in Singapore Airlines and Singapore Telecom, as well as in banks, real estate, shipping, energy and other industries in India, China, South Korea and elsewhere.

Analysts have speculated for some time that China would create an investment company, and officials have said repeatedly they want to make better use of the country's reserves.

COCA-COLA CHIEF PAID $20.9M IN COMPENSATION

ATLANTA — The chief executive of The Coca-Cola Co., Neville Isdell, was granted $20.9 million in total compensation last year as valued by the company, according to an analysis of a regulatory filing issued by the world's largest beverage maker today.

The Associated Press calculations of total compensation include salary, bonus, incentives, perks, any above-market returns on deferred compensation and the estimated value of stock options and awards granted during the year.

Isdell's compensation includes a salary of $1.5 million. The fair value of stock and option awards granted to Isdell last year totaled $13.34 million. Non-equity incentive plan compensation totaled $5.5 million. All other compensation, which included travel and other benefits, totaled $545,407.

AIRBUS PROBLEMS LIKELY TO LINGER

MUNICH, Germany — Airbus endured its worst year since it began in 1970, as delays, higher expenses and a weak dollar dragged down fourth-quarter and 2006 net profit for its parent, EADS NV. The company's co-CEOs said things would only get worse before they get better.

Co-chief executive Louis Gallois pointed to the multiple and major delays to the A380 superjumbo that caused EADS to lose 768 million euros ($1.01 billion) in the October-December period, after a 405 million euros profit in the year-earlier quarter.

Gallois and co-CEO Tom Enders said that the problems at Airbus would continue to be felt through the rest of this year, warning that even though deliveries will reach as many as 450 planes, the financial pain will be considerable.

EU AGREES ON BOLD PLAN TO FIGHT GLOBAL WARMING

BRUSSELS, Belgium — EU leaders agreed today on a bold set of measures to fight global warming, pledging that a fifth of the bloc's energy will come from green power sources such as wind turbines and solar panels by 2020 and 10 percent of European cars will run on biofuels.

At French insistence, the deal — which does not yet include an enforcement mechanism — noted the role atomic energy could play in replacing coal- or oil-fired power plants blamed for pumping out greenhouse gases. The inclusion caused unease for non-nuclear states such as Austria and Ireland and triggered complaints from environmental groups.

European leaders said the agreement, the first to go beyond the 35-nation Kyoto Protocol in its targets for greenhouse gas emissions cuts, marked a turning point in the fight against global warming.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel challenged other nations to follow suit, saying the world still had time to "avoid what could well be a human calamity" caused by climate change.

OIL PRICES, GASOLINE FUTURES DROP

NEW YORK — Oil prices followed gasoline futures lower and settled near $60 a barrel today as traders positioned themselves before the weekend.

Light, sweet crude for April delivery dropped $1.59 to settle at $60.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Brent crude for April delivery fell $1.20 to settle at $61.13 a barrel on London's ICE Futures Exchange.

Gasoline futures slipped more than 2 cents to settle at $1.9021 a gallon.

Concerns over falling gasoline inventories from decreased refinery production and fewer imports have boosted oil and gasoline prices lately. On Wednesday, the government reported that total U.S. motor gasoline inventories fell by 3.8 million barrels to 216.4 million barrels, a sharper decline than the 1.4 million barrel drop that analysts had expected.

YAHOO STOCK SLIPS AMID WORRIES OVER AT&T DEAL

SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo Inc.'s recently resurgent stock retreated by more than 5 percent today amid fears that a setback in a lucrative partnership with AT&T Inc. will undercut the anticipated gains from an overhaul of the Web portal's advertising platform.

The sell-off was triggered by an unconfirmed report in The Wall Street Journal that AT&T wants to stop giving Yahoo a slice of the subscriber fees from a 6-year-old co-branding agreement to sell Internet access in most of the country.

If AT&T gets its way, Yahoo would have to be satisfied with whatever money it could make by selling its own online products, such as digital music or matchmaking services, to subscribers of the joint service.

San Antonio-based AT&T declined to comment on the substance of the Journal's report, but acknowledged in a statement that its Yahoo partnership "is rooted in the open and ongoing dialogue we maintain."