Nissan Motor Co, Renault SA and General Motors Corp agreed to continue their talks on a possible tripartite alliance until October 15 as initially planned, Nissan said.

The decision was made during a meeting between Carlos Ghosn, head of Nissan and Renault, and GM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner.

Through the work of the three study teams, our companies continue to explore the potential opportunities of an industrial alliance, Nissan said in a statement issued after the meeting.

The statement said the three automakers will be focusing on how an alliance could generate significant shareholder value for each company.

No further details of the meeting will be given at this time, Nissan officials said.

Nissan executives earlier said there might be a possibility of further examining the potential mutual benefits of the project, if the three automakers agree to work toward a deal.

Ghosn and Wagoner were in Paris to attend the Paris auto show, which will kick off Thursday with a media preview.

The two CEOs' face-to-face meeting, the first since July 14 in Detroit, came at a time of mounting speculation that more than two months of exploratory talks between the three automakers have resulted in little progress.

Nissan, Renault and GM began a 90-day review of the potential benefits of a three-way alliance in July. The review is slated to end October 15.

Nissan and Renault, which formed an alliance in 1999, are eager to find a North American partner to rev up global sales of their vehicles.

But GM is said to be seeing few benefits in the proposed alliance, partly because a turnaround program undertaken by the world's No. 1 automaker is showing signs of having a positive effect.

GM executives were also reportedly raising concerns that the proposed alliance would do more good to the Nissan-Renault side than it would do to GM and questioning the fairness of the deal.

On Monday in Paris, Renault Executive Vice President Patrick Pelata said he had warned GM Vice Chairman and Chief Financial Officer Fritz Henderson that if you delay solving your performance issues, it is just going to get worse in the battle for market share with Toyota Motor Corp., according to the Wall Street Journal.

Earlier this month, Toyota said its group will try to sell around 9.8 million vehicles worldwide in 2008, raising the likelihood that it will overtake GM's top position in the industry sooner or later.

The idea of the alliance was first brought up in late June by billionaire shareholder Kirk Kerkorian, who owns a 9.9 per cent stake in GM.

If realised, the alliance will create a giant auto partnership with combined annual global sales of more than 15 million units, about double the size of Toyota's, and a 25 per cent share of annual new vehicle sales on the global market.

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