Renault chairman plays down prospects of price war

Renault SA chairman Louis Schweitzer confirmed the company's full year forecasts despite the difficult foreign exchange market and an increasingly competitive pricing environment.

Renault, France's second largest automaker, manufactures a range of small to midsize cars and light commercial vehicles.

It also has a 44% stake in Japan's number three automaker, Nissan Motor, and a 23% stake in its truck-making affiliate Nissan Diesel Motor, and is 26% controlled by the French government.

Schweitzer told journalists at the Geneva Auto Show: "I see no need to alter our (2004) forecasts of a western European market up 1%, nor Renault's own earnings targets".

He played down prospects of a European price war in the wake of cuts by Volkswagen and Opel, arguing that German car prices are adjusting downwards towards those in other euro zone countries.