(Adds background on Renault's U.S. history para 7)
PARIS, Nov 29 (Reuters) - French carmaker Renault SA is set to meet its full-year target of a two percent operating margin and will consider launching its brands in the U.S. from 2010, Chairman Louis Schweitzer said on Friday.
Schweitzer also confirmed in an interview on television station LCI that Renault aimed for the same or higher market share in 2002 than it had last year.
"We are in line with the target we gave in July," Schweitzer said, referring to Renault's 2002 margin goal. The operating margin, or operating profit as a percentage of sales, is a key measure of a company's profitability.
Schweitzer confirmed that Renault would not return to the U.S. market before 2010 due to the success there of the firm's Japanese partner Nissan , in which it holds a 44.4 percent stake.
But he stressed that it would consider a foray into the world's largest car market after that date. This would be made easier by Nissan's existing network of factories and dealerships, he said.
"The United States is becoming an important question for reflection for Renault because it is a very big market," he said. "At the moment, it is Nissan (in the U.S.). But from 2010, this is something to re-examine."
Renault has had no direct presence in the world's biggest car market since 1987, when it pulled out following a botched attempt to turn around U.S. manufacturer AMC.
Shares in Renault, one of the few French blue chips to post a net gain this year, traded down 1.04 percent at 48.70 euros by 1242 GMT, lagging the European DJ Stoxx Autos index , which dipped 0.21 percent.
NO LINK-UP WITH FIAT
Schweitzer also said that Renault did not intend to form any link-up with Italy's crisis-hit Fiat . When asked if Renault was looking at Fiat he replied: "No."
Most analysts expect Fiat to rid itself of car-related problems by selling its 80 percent stake in Fiat Auto to General Motors Corp. under a "put" option that starts in 2004.
But some sources say an alternative could be for another automaker to buy some or all of the struggling carmaker, which includes the Fiat, Lancia and Alfa Romeo brands.
Schweitzer reaffirmed an earlier forecast that the western European car market as a whole would dip by around four percent this year, and that Renault hoped to maintain or improve its market share.
Renault is aiming for a market share "above or the same as last year's", he said, though he conceded that the third quarter had been tough for the company, as expected.
Schweitzer said he forecast the French car market would either remain flat in 2003, or slip by five percent, depending on economic growth in the euro zone's second largest economy.
Renault last month posted a 2.9 percent dip in third-quarter sales, blaming the fall on its ageing line-up as it rolls out new versions of top-selling models.
In September it launched the quirky new mid-sized Megane, which it is betting will boost profitability and help grab market share from domestic rival PSA Peugeot Citroen and Germany's Volkswagen AG .