Japanese daily Yomiuri Shimbun today said a prototype of the car would be unveiled at the Tokyo motor show in October. The new model would be marketed throughout southeast Asia and India.

For the Indian market the car has to be produced in India at the Suzuki-Maruti workshop half owned by Suzuki. But the daily is silent on whether arrangements are complete for the car's Indian production at Maruti Udyog Ltd.

According to Shimbun, the "Asia car" is to be on the market by the end of 2,000.

It said, while Suzuki would produce the car at its factories in Indonesia, GM would build it either in Thailand or Australia for the southeast Asian market.

The two auto makers, Suzuki and GM boosted their capital ties last September when they decided on joint development and production of minicars on a worldwide scale. GM at the time also became a major shareholder in Suzuki, acquiring a ten per cent stake in the Japanese company.

Suzuki and GM have already announced they would jointly develop a car for Eastern Europe where Maruti models have been selling for some years now, industry sources said.

The successful Suzuki-GM global minicar venture is expected to prompt other U.S. Auto majors including Ford to enter the fast growing Asian and Indian market with minicars and the Japanese companies such as Fuji and Mitsubishi, active in the small car sector, are also likely to join in the race.