Toshiba president Satoshi Tsunakawa has said the company may sell its majority stake in U.S. nuclear unit Westinghouse, BBC News reports.

The struggling electronics firm bought Westinghouse in 2006, but it has suffered huge cost over-runs.

Toshiba has also been given permission to delay reporting its earnings for a second time - this time until 11 April.

Tsunakawa said: "We are working on nurturing our growth businesses to return to stable growth by fiscal years 2018 and 2019."

Shares in the company rallied late on Tuesday, 14 March closing up 0.5% in Tokyo after earlier falling by nearly 9%.

In February, Toshiba's chairman stepped down and the firm delayed publishing its results over disagreements with its auditors.

Last month, the firm announced a 712.5bn yen ($6.3bn) writedown because some of its U.S. nuclear assets were worth far less than estimated.

The situation has led some analysts to warn that the company's future may be at risk.