Fiat deflects questions on DCX Talks

ROME, June 21 - Fiat <FIA.MI> Chairman and Chief Executive Paolo Fresco on Friday sidestepped a newspaper report that the loss-making carmaker was in talks with Germany's DaimlerChrysler <DCXGn.DE>.

Asked to comment on the report, Fresco told reporters: "You learn so many things from the newspapers."

Financial daily Il Sole 24 Ore on Friday quoted financial sources in New York saying Fresco met Daimler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp in the United States last week, suggesting the German group may want to buy Fiat Auto.

Fiat's core car unit has made an operating loss in three of the last four years and in the first quarter of 2002 pulled the group to a net loss of 529 million euros.

Fiat has pledged to turn the division around and return to profit by 2004 but could also decide to exercise an option to sell its 80 percent stake in Fiat Auto to U.S. giant General Motors Corp. <GM.N> which holds the other 20 percent.

GM has said it has no intention of buying Fiat Auto before the beginning of the option period at the start of 2004.



FRANKFURT, June 21 - German-U.S. auto group DaimlerChrysler <DCXGn.DE> said on Friday it had no interest in buying the auto unit of Italian industrial group Fiat <FIA.MI>.

"DaimlerChrysler has no interest in Fiat Auto," said a DaimlerChrysler spokesman.

The spokesman declined to comment on whether DaimlerChrysler Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp had met Fiat Chairman and Chief Executive Paolo Fresco in the U.S. recently, as had been reported in an Italian newspaper.

That report sparked speculation that DaimlerChrysler might be in talks with Fiat as the Italian firm's car unit struggles to return to profit.