"In India we are very close to an announcement," Andreas Renschler, a member of the Daimler board, said at an event to launch a new heavy-duty diesel engine. "We have found a partner," he said.

He said the automaker would save 600 million euros from a global engine platform for its heavy-duty trucks, once the system is fully implemented.

Daimler is planning to expand its commercial vehicle division in India and Russia.

Daimler already sells a small number of its Actros heavy lorry in India, spokeswoman Julia Kroeber-Riel said, and also planned to produce so-called CKD versions of the vehicle in limited numbers later this year.

Completely Knocked Down production means the vehicle is built in Germany or Brazil, before being dismantled and rebuilt in India, she explained.

That would complement much larger production of the vehicle planned with Mercedes'' Indian partner, which both Renschler and Kroeber-Riel declined to identify.

Daimler holds small stakes in two Indian lorry makers, Tata and Eicher. Renschler had also told the newspaper that Daimler planned to build a Mercedes truck in Russia.

"We are discussing building a factory for truck assembly," Renschler told the newspaper.

"We will make a final decision by the end of this year." He said that in 2007, the group would again reach last year''s record level of operating profit of 2.02 billion euros.

Daimler''s five lorry brands, Mercedes, Mitsubishi Fuso, Freightliner, Western Star and Sterling sold 537,000 units last year for almost 32 billion euros, Kroeber-Riel said.

Daimler, meanwhile, said it has invested a total of $1.5 billion since 2002 in the development of a global engine platform for all heavy-duty trucks in the mid- to long-term.

The platform, called heavy-duty engine platform, was presented in Detroit, the company said.

It said the goal is for trucks using the platform to have 90 per cent shared parts and to produce a target volume of 200,000 trucks annually in the mid- to long-term.