The news came only two weeks after Nissan said 10 banks had agreed to extend it a 500-billion yen credit line, in response to what a spokesman called "an extremely tight financial situation".

Nissan, Japan's number-two carmaker, is struggling under a heavy debt burden after several years of successive losses.

The company said it expected a consolidated net loss in the year to March 31, its sixth such loss in seven years.

Japanese trade minister Kaoru Yosano said he wanted to make available more than five trillion yen in funds through quasi-government financial institutions, including the Japan Development Bank, to help ease the country's credit crunch.

Yosano said that some Japanese companies were having problems raising funds ahead of the year-end, a peak period for fund demand, and ahead ofthe maturity of a slew of corporate bonds in the January-to-March quarter.

He said he would like to expand the role of the development bank, limited by current law to the purchase of bonds from corporations needing capital investment funds, so that it could make loans or guarantees to Japanese firms facing financial difficulties.

One factor adding to Nissan's fund-raising woes was a cut in its debt ratings.