Toyota announced the recall of up to 1.8 million units in Europe due to faulty gas pedals, receiving another blow as it attempts to return to the black after logging its first group operating loss in 71 years in fiscal 2008 to last March due to the global slump in auto sales.

Toyota has already announced the recalls of 2.3 million vehicles in the United States, 270,000 in Canada and 75,000 in China over faulty gas pedals. The latest step in Europe brings the total number of Toyota vehicles subject to recalls over faulty gas pedals to nearly 4.5 million units.

The automaker, meanwhile, is recalling some 5.55 million vehicles in the United States and Canada to reduce the risk of gas pedals getting stuck under loose floor mats and causing sudden acceleration.

The total number of vehicles subject to recalls for problems with gas pedals or floor mats totals almost 10 million. But a large proportion of the 2.57 million recalls in the United States and Canada over faulty gas pedals are believed to overlap with those for the floor mat problem.

As a result, the actual number of vehicles subject to recalls for the gas pedal or floor mat problem is estimated at more than 7 million, which tops Toyota’s global sales of 6.98 million units for 2009.

According to Toyota Motor Europe, eights models, including the Yaris, the carmaker’s best-selling car in Europe, produced between November 2005 and September 2009, are subject to its recall, which also covers Russia, Turkey and Israel in addition to European countries.

The seven other models being recalled for free repairs are the AYGO made between February 2005 and August 2009, iQ made between November 2008 and November 2009, Auris made between October 2006 and January 2010, Corolla made between October 2006 and December 2009, Verso made between February 2009 and January 2010, Avensis made between November 2008 and December 2009 and the RAV4 made between November 2005 and November 2009.

No Lexus and other Toyota models are affected, the company said.

As Toyota has suspended sales of the vehicle models subject to the recalls in the United States and Canada, it suspended production of the models at five North American plants Friday night. The output suspension is expected to last for at least one week.

In Washington, the House of Representatives Committee on Oversight and Government Reform said Friday it will hold a hearing next Thursday on the Toyota recall issue, inviting Toyota North America President Yoshimi Inaba and Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood and National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration Administrator David Strickland.

‘‘There appears growing public confusion regarding which (Toyota) vehicles may be affected and how people should respond,’’ said Edolphus Towns, a Democrat from the state of New York, who chairs the committee. ‘‘In short, the public is unsure as to what exactly the problem is, whether it is safe to drive their cars, or what they should do about it.’‘

Toyota has issued a series of recent recalls covering 5.6 million vehicles in the United states due to sudden acceleration in some vehicles. It is the largest ever recall for Toyota and among the biggest for an automaker in U.S. history.

The problem has affected popular selling Toyota cars as well as its luxury Lexus models and is suspected of causing crashes that led to 19 fatalities over the past decade, government officials have said.

Nearly 2 million vehicles also have been recalled in Europe. PSA Peugeot Citroen said on Saturday it would recall 100,000 Peugeot 107 and Citroen C1 models made at a factory in the Czech Republic where the French group and Toyota jointly make cars.

Some 75,000 Toyota vehicles have been recalled in China.

Toyota President Akio Toyoda apologized for the recall, Japanese broadcaster NHK reported on Friday.

“We’re extremely sorry to have made customers uneasy,” Toyoda said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland in comments that were broadcast by NHK.

Toyoda last commented publicly on the matter in October, when he expressed regret for the deaths of four people in a California crash linked to the defects last year.

Most of the vehicles recalled in the United States were singled out over concerns that gas pedals could get jammed on floor mats. Toyota is modifying gas pedals, redesigning floor mats, and taking other steps to address that issue.

The subject of the fix reviewed by NHTSA this week and expected to be announced by Toyota within days covers more than 2 million vehicles equipped with gas pedals that may not spring back as designed.

The remedy being readied by Toyota and its accelerator supplier, CTS Corp, involves a shim, also called a spacer, that will be placed in the accelerator to keep it from sticking, sources have said.

NHTSA regulators are not required to approve the remedy but they can reject the approach if they consider it inadequate.

Toyota said in a statement late on Saturday that it had reviewed the pedal fix with NHTSA and was finalizing details.

U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said last week that NHTSA, which is part of his agency, closely reviewed the proposal.

LaHood said he was satisfied with Toyota’s overall response to the acceleration issue, which has dented its reputation and prompted rivals, like government-owned General Motors Co., to try and lure its customers to their brands with incentives.

As part of the recalls, Toyota has been forced to suspend sales of eight models in the United States, including its Camry sedan, the best-selling car in the world’s second-biggest auto market. It also temporarily halted production of the eight models at six U.S. and Canadian plants.

Sources briefed on Toyota’s U.S. sales plans told Reuters on Friday the sales shutdown would continue until at least mid-February.

A resumption assumes a smooth and swift rollout of a remedy to fix faulty accelerators in vehicles already sold or for sale at dealerships, the sources said.

Toyota announces third-quarter financial results on February 4. Analysts estimate the sales halt could cost Toyota at least $550 million in operating profit per month.

An international search team was combing Lebanon’s Mediterranean coastline for signs of life Tuesday amid fears that all 90 people aboard the Addis Ababa-bound airliner perished in the accident, authorities said.

Lebanese Transportation Minister Ghazi al-Aridi said Tuesday it was too early to determine whether pilot error had caused the crash.

He said the plane’s flight data and cockpit voice recorders would need to be recovered to determine why Flight 409 disappeared from radar screens shortly after taking off from Beirut’s Rafik Hariri International Airport at about 2:30 a.m. local time.

The control tower lost contact with the plane before it made a course correction Monday, al-Aridi said.

In a statement, Ethiopian Airlines said the pilot of the flight had more than 20 years of experience flying various aircraft with the airline’s network. The plane had been declared safe and fit to fly following a regular maintenance service on December 25, 2009, the airline said.
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The Lebanese military reported Tuesday that 14 bodies had been found — nine fewer than an earlier count. Confusion early in the search led to double-counting, they said. No survivors have been found.

The search included aircraft from the United States, Britain, France and Cyprus.

The U.S. military sent the USS Ramage — a guided missile destroyer — and Navy P-3 aircraft in response to Lebanese requests for assistance, according to U.S. defense officials.

“We don’t believe that there is any indication for sabotage or foul play,” Lebanese President Michel Suleiman said Monday.

The U.S. National Transportation Safety Board is also sending an investigator because the plane was made by a U.S. manufacturer.

The Boeing 737-800 had eight crew members and 82 passengers — 51 Lebanese nationals, 23 Ethiopians, two Britons and citizens from Canada, Iraq, Russia, Syria, Turkey and France — when it went down, the airline said.

The plane crashed about 3.5 kilometers (2 miles) west of the town of Na’ameh which is 15 kilometers (9 miles) south of Beirut.

Government-owned Ethiopian Airlines is one of the largest carriers in Africa, serving Europe and three other continents. The airline has experienced two fatal crashes since 1980.

In November 1996, a flight bound for Ivory Coast was hijacked by three men who demanded that the pilot fly to Australia. The pilot crashed while attempting an emergency landing near the Comoros Islands off Africa. About 130 of the 172 people aboard died, according to published reports.