May 1 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. car market, the world's largest, won't recover before 2011, Nissan Motor Co. Chief Executive Officer Carlos Ghosn said.

``The U.S. is slumping in 2008,'' Ghosn said today at a news conference in Portugal. ``At best, in 2009 and 2010 we'll see a stabilization.''

Like larger Japanese rivals Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., Nissan depends on North America for more than one- third of sales. Honda leads the pack with a 54 percent contribution last year. An increase in the value of the yen against the dollar has also hurt Japanese automakers by reducing the value of U.S. sales converted back into yen.

The European and Japanese car markets will continue to stagnate or decline, said Ghosn, who also heads Renault SA, the French carmaker that owns 44 percent of Nissan.

Ghosn, who failed to reach a tie-up agreement with General Motors Corp. two years ago, reiterated that Renault and Nissan are still looking to extend their alliance to a U.S. partner. Together they account for about 7 million vehicle sales a year, including 900,000 produced by Russia's OAO AvtoVAZ, in which Renault has a 25 percent stake.

``We're not looking for scale, we're looking for value'' from a potential U.S. expansion, Ghosn said. ``This is an opportunity, not an obligation.''

Chrysler, Kerkorian

Nissan is ``not interested in buying any brands from Chrysler or any other companies,'' the CEO said.

Ghosn said he has not been approached by investor Kirk Kerkorian, who said April 28 he had acquired 4.7 percent of Ford Motor Co. and planned to buy more shares. Kerkorian, GM's biggest shareholder from 2005 to 2006, initiated the failed negotiations with Renault-Nissan.

The Japanese company will seek more product-specific partnerships of the kind announced with Chrysler LLC last month, the CEO said. Under that agreement, the third-largest U.S. carmaker will supply large pickups to Nissan in exchange for compact cars, saving development costs for both companies.

Renault-Nissan is in discussions about the possible rollout of its planned range of electric cars in a Middle Eastern country, as well as in Beijing, London and Paris, Ghosn said, declining to identify the state.

Electric Cars

The alliance partners said in January they plan to supply electric cars for a network of battery charging stations being set up across Israel by entrepreneur Shai Agassi. Wider deployment of electric cars will ``depend on the incentives,'' Ghosn said, citing a 60 percent Israeli tax break.

Nissan, trailing Toyota and Honda on hybrid technologies, is also betting that consumers will embrace smaller, more fuel- efficient gasoline cars as pump prices soar. The Cube, a boxy minivan, goes on sale in the U.S. next year and will be introduced in ``all the markets that are willing to take it,'' Ghosn said.

Nissan led a rise in Japanese domestic auto sales in April as an extra selling day and a temporary tax break spurred demand for recently introduced mid-size passenger car models. The carmaker reported a 12 percent increase in sales to 34,553 vehicles, the Japan Automobile Dealers Association said today in a statement.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Frost in Cacais, Portugal at lfrost4@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: May 1, 2008 10:14 EDT