The United States justice department says it has reached financial settlements with two big car companies accused of violating regulations on air pollution.The biggest settlement is with Honda of Japan, which is alleged to have disabled the system monitoring exhaust emissions on one-point-six million of its cars.

The company will pay a fine of more than seventeen-million dollars, but correspondents say the total cost to the company will be swollen by a further two-hundred-and-fifty-million dollars for corrective engine checks and repairs.

The second case involves Ford, which was accused of tampering with emission controls on sixty-thousand vans to improve fuel efficiency.

The settlement will cost Ford nearly eight-million dollars including a fine oftwo-and-a-half million.