TOKYO -- Toyota Motor Corp. President Fujio Cho may offer troubled General Motors help with safety and environmental technology at a meeting with Chairman Rick Wagoner this month, a Japanese newspaper said on Thursday.
The report comes a week after Toyota's chairman raised the possibility of raising prices to help struggling U.S. manufacturers, which are losing market share.
Wagoner is expected to fly to Japan on May 14 for the meeting, which is also likely to be attended by GM's research and development chief, Larry Burns, the paper said.
Toyota's honorary chairman, Shoichiro Toyoda, planned talks with Wagoner in the United States on May 24, the paper said.
GM posted a $1.1 billion quarterly loss last month, its worst result since it skirted bankruptcy in 1992.
Shares in GM, which had been at their lowest levels in more than a decade, soared on Thursday on news that elderly billionaire Kirk Kerkorian had offered to more than double his stake to 8.8 percent. The financier is known for shaking up companies he invests in.
Toyota Chairman Hiroshi Okuda said last month that voluntary price rises were one way of easing the U.S. motor industry's difficulties.
A Toyota spokesman later denied the company was considering such price rises.
