Chrysler and Mitsubishi plan joint US operations

Chrysler and Mitsubishi Motors announced a new agreement on joint US operations which they said could lead to possible investment in the ailing US automaker by the Japanese company. The new agreement calls for Chrysler to market an expanded line of Mitsubishi vehicles and for the first time gives Mitsubishi the option to establish an independent distribution system in the United States.

The joint announcement said Chrysler chairman Lee Iacocca and Mitsubishi Motors chairman Tomio Kubo met in Palm Springs, Calif., this week and si gned a "memorandum of agreed principles covering a new long-term relationship."