BRUSSELS, Sept 12, 2007 (AFP) - The European Commission opened on Wednesday a probe into whether state aid for German postal operator Deutsche Post broke EU rules.

The European Union's top competition regulator said the investigation was to find out if the government overpaid the company for the public service of delivering mail to far-flung, unprofitable places.

The Commission already found in 2002 that Deutsche Post had received illegal state aid and ordered Germany to recover 572 million euros (794 million dollars).

FRANKFURT, Aug 3, 2007 (AFP) - Deutsche Post, the semi-privatised German postal operation and Europe's biggest postal service, Friday announced second-quarter results that exceeded expectations but warned of possible job cuts.

Net profit was up 13.1 percent year on year to 285 million euros (390 million dollars), while operating profit rose 9.5 percent to 703 million euros.

Sales rose 6.5 percent to 15.44 billion euros.

All the figures outpaced analysts' expectations.