Hirofumi Nakazawa, president of Nissan Motor's truck-making affiliate Nissan Diesel Motor, speaks to reporters in Tokyo February 11 as he announces job cuts and the closing of a truck assembly plant in Gunma, north of Tokyo, as part of a restructuring effort. He said Nissan Diesel will eliminate 3,000 jobs, 80 percent of which will be cut by the end of fiscal 1999. Amid year-long tie-up talks with DaimlerChrysler AG, the company posted a pretax loss of 1.11 billion yen ($9.73 million) in fiscal 1997 and is predicting further losses in this fiscal year.

ES/TAN/JDP