"There's an interesting document that indicates there were discussions by Ford and Firestone as to how they would handle the Mideast problem," said Louisiana Republican Representative Billy Tauzin on the eve of Congressional hearings where top company executives face tough questions about what they knew and when.

Tauzin, who was speaking to Reuters in an interview, is chairman of the House Commerce consumer protection subcommittee which will hold Wednesday's hearing.

Firestone, owned by Japanese tiremaker Bridgestone Corp, announced August 9 a voluntary recall of 6.5 million tires in the United States in response to a government probe that now includes 88 deaths linked to crashes involving Firestone tire failures. Tauzin said both Ford and Firestone had information that, if disclosed earlier and properly used by federal regulators, could have led to an earlier US recall and saved lives.

In August last year, Ford began offering Saudi Arabian customers replacement tires on its Explorer sport utility vehicle. Ford would make replacement offers in 15 other countries in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America before any US recall began.

"One of the motivations to not recall the tires, but to have Ford to assume responsibility, was Firestone's concern that it would trigger action by DoT (the Department of Transportation) here in America," Tauzin said.

Neither Firestone nor Ford could immediately be reached forcomment. DoT's National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) warned consumers last Friday to be wary of an additional 1.4 million Firestone tires that had worse rates of tread separation than the three models already being recalled.

But Firestone has declined to expand its recall beyond the 15-inch P235/75R15 ATX, ATX II tires and the same sized Wilderness AT tires made at its Decatur, Illinois, plant. Firestone has said NHTSA's analysis is flawed. "I was appalled," Tauzin said about learning that Firestonewould not recall the additional tires.

Senate and House committees will hold back-to-back hearings Wednesday into the tire problems. The Senate Appropriations subcommittee on transportation has set its hearing for 10 a.M. EDT (1400 GMT). Two House Commerce subcommittees on consumer protection and investigations follow with a joint hearing at 1 P.M. EDT (1700 GMT). Ford will be represented by Chief executive officer JacquesNasser. Bridgestone/Firestone will be represented by CEO Masatoshi Ono and NHTSA by its administrator, Sue Bailey.

Firestone's woes continued Tuesday when its outside public relations firms, Fleishman-Hillard International Communications Inc., said it was dropping the tire maker as a client.

"We resigned because it became evident we could no longer be of service to Bridgestone/Firestone," said Dave Senay, general manager of Fleishman's St. Louis office, declining to comment further.

Tauzin faulted NHTSA for not seeking further information from Firestone and Ford when tipped off about the tire failures in July 1998 by State Farm, the largest US auto insurer.

Had NHTSA asked, it would have found that Firestone had compiled a huge amount of information showing a spike in injury and property claims against its tires, he said. "Firestone had a lot of information they did notvoluntarily share with NHTSA," said Tauzin.

Meanwhile, US safety groups continue to press for the recall to be expanded. Safetyforum.com, which works with plaintiffs attorneys, said it has analysed nearly nearly 100 lawsuits other claims to find that 37 percent involved non-recalled 16-inch tires or 15-inch tires not made at Firestone's Decatur plant.