In its first full year since emerging from bankruptcy, General Motors has posted a record profit of $7.6bn, although European woes weighed on the car firms results in the last months of 2011.

GM's 2011 profit, up from $4.7bn last year, was boosted by recovery in North America, where sales rose and buyers paid higher prices for vehicles, and steady growth in China.

The profit was 62% higher than last year's and beat GM's previous record of $6.7bn in 1997. GM's 47,500 eligible hourly workers will receive profit-sharing checks of up to $7,000, an all-time high.

Europe remained a black spot for the world's largest car firm. GM lost $747m for the year in Europe, $562m in the fourth quarter alone. Last year GM lost $2bn in Europe. The losses have led to speculation about the closure of major European plants including Ellesmere Port in England and Bochum in Germany.

In the last quarter of 2011 GM made a profit of $472m, or 28 cents a share, down from $510m, or 31 cents a share, a year ago. It was the car firm's eighth-consecutive quarterly profit.

The company is also struggling to revamp its business in South America. GM lost $122m for the year in South America, compared with a profit of $818m in 2010.

"In our first full year as a public company, we grew the top and bottom lines, advanced our global market share and made strategic investments in our brands around the world," said Dan Akerson, chairman and chief executive officer. "We will build on these results as we bring more new cars, crossovers and trucks to market, and make GM a far more efficient global team. This includes reducing our break-even level in Europe and South America and driving higher revenues around the world."

It has been less than three years since GM emerged from bankruptcy after the car firm had to be bailed out by the US taxpayers. The government now owns 26.5% of GM.

Global sales at GM rose 7.6% last year to 9.03m vehicles, outselling Toyota to regain the title as the world's top-selling automaker for the first time since 2008.

But Europe remains a major concern. In a conference call Ackerson said: "I think there's a general recognition by all constituencies that the situation in Europe today is not a whole lot different than it was in the United States or North America generally three plus years ago."

He said there was a "constructive engagement" about the need to tackle the firm's problems in Europe. "Everybody around the table understands that there has been a material change for the outlook for the European economy generally. It's in the paper every day and certainly in the consumer's mind," he said.

"This has been a year of good progress, but there is a lot more work to do," Dan Ammann, GM's finance chief, said. "We obviously have a long way to go to get to the objectives we want to get to."