US-based Chrysler LLC's new owners are increasingly visualizing China as a crucial litmus test market in the newly privatized automaker's drive to expand outside North America, through production licensing and increased outsourcing, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing a senior company executive.

'Licensed manufacturing brings a number of benefits. It enables us to bring a vehicle to market very quickly. I think you'll see the model repeated in other markets,' the newspaper quoted Mike Manley, a Chrysler executive vice president, as saying.

Chrysler has said it is working on a significant global expansion following its split from Daimler AG. It is now owned mostly by Cerberus, a private equity group which bought an 80.1 pct stake in the US car company for 7.4 bln usd on August 3.

Last week, the first Chrysler minivan rolled off the assembly line at a plant in southern China, owned by South East Motors Inc -- a venture between the mainland and Taiwan firms.

The Grand Voyager minivan is being manufactured under a licensing deal signed in 2005 with Chrysler. Financial terms of the deal have not been released.

Chrysler also sees joint-venture deals with other car manufacturers as important.'There are a number of options' for local partners, Manley said, without elaborating.