It also outlined plans to bolster the Mazda Autozam dealership network, one of its four domestic sales channels.

The company had targeted combined sales for the three new minivehicle models of 2,450 units a month, Mazda director and domestic sales general manager Katsuhiko Seo told a news conference.

The models include the Carol mini hatchback, priced from 648,000 yen; the AZ-Wagon, priced from 875,000 yen; and the AZ-Offroad, from 1.30 million yen.

Seo said Mazda, Japan's fifth-largest automaker, had not revised its total domestic sales target for fiscal year 1998-99 of 340,000 units, or a 5.6-per cent increase, although it only sold 158,000 units in the first half, down 1.5 per cent from a year earlier.

Seo said Mazda planned to double sales through its Autozam channel to 100,000 units ayear.

Mazda Autozam, a national network of 727 small shops that on an average sell fewer than 70 vehicles per year, carries minivehicles and Mazda's popular Demio compact multi-purpose wagon.

Mazda, owned 33.4 per cent by Ford Motor Co, expects to earn a consolidated net profit in 1998-99 for the first time in six years. The company's lengthy restructuring is now targeting its domestic sales channels.