MITSUBISHI Motors Corp, Japan's fifth-largest car maker, and union workers at its United States auto°?-assembly plant will resume talks this week after failing to negotiate a new contract before the previous pact ran out.

The prior agreement for United Auto Workers Local 2,488 members at Mitsubishi's Illinois factory ended late Friday, after being extended past an August 28 deadline. Talks restarted yesterday, plant spokesman Dan Irvin told Bloomberg News.

Mitsubishi Motors North America "will continue to operate the plant in Illinois while next steps in the negotiations are explored and considered," Irvin said in the statement. "We expect employees to report for work as usual on Monday."

Mitsubishi seeks a new accord as it tries to stem a 22 percent drop in US sales through August. The Illinois plant, opened in 1986 as a joint venture between the Tokyo°?-based auto maker and the former Chrysler Corp, has operated only a single daily shift for the past few years with about 1,200 workers. Output at the factory is down 25 percent. Union workers at the plant in 2005 and again the following year agreed to delay talks on a new contract, as the company posted annual losses for three straight fiscal years through March 2006. The plant's employees also accepted a US$4-an-hour wage cut in 2006, a concession that expired in April.

The plant has annual capacity to make 135,000 Eclipse coupes, Spyder convertibles, Galant sedans and Endeavor sport-utility vehicles, according to a company Website. At its peak, the factory produced as many as 240,000 Mitsubishi and Chrysler models a year, with two daily shifts.