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CORRECTED - Nissan Mexico seeks to preempt plant strike

In Mexico City story headlined "Nissan Mexico seeks to preempt plant strike," please read in first paragraph ... on Wednesday ... instead of ... on Tuesday ... (Corrects day)

A corrected version follows.

MEXICO CITY, March 31 (Reuters) - The Mexican subsidiary of Japanese car manufacturer Nissan on Wednesday said it was in last-minute talks to prevent a strike at its plant in central Morelos state.

A Nissan spokesman in Mexico, Diego Arrazola, said the firm was negotiating with 1,700 workers at the plant who threatened to walk out at midnight on April 1 after reports the firm planned to cut jobs following declining exports of its Sentra model to the U.S.

Arrazola confirmed that Nissan was seeking to reduce the number of workers at its plants in Mexico -- where it has 8,000 workers, 6,000 of them unionized -- but declined to give details of either the size of the planned job cuts or where the ax would fall.

Nissan has two factories in Mexico, the Morelos plant, where it makes its popular Tsuru and Tsubame models, and a factory in the central Mexican city of Aguascalientes, where it makes the Platina and Sentra models, as well as engine components.

In 2003, the firm manufactured 291,902 units. Arrazola forecast a dip in production this year, but predicted a recovery in demand in 2005 led by production of new models, including a new version of the Sentra.

"Sentra exports to the United States are down, but it is the end of the (model's) cycle. We hope that (the new version) will be attractive to the market and lead to a recovery in demand," he said.

Nissan Motor Co. Ltd is Japan's third-largest car manufacturer and owns a 44.4 percent stake in French carmaker Renault . Renault makes its popular Clio model at Nissan's Aguascalientes plant, and the Scenic model at its factory in Morelos, for the domestic market.