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WRAPUP 1-Daimler CEO stands firm as Asia plans unravel

(Wraps stories, adds Eckrodt resigning, Schrempp in China)

By Christiaan Hetzner and Rhee So-eui

FRANKFURT/SEOUL, April 26 (Reuters) - DaimlerChrysler AG Chief Executive Juergen Schrempp has no intention of resigning, the automaker said on Monday, after last week's move to abandon Mitsubishi Motors left its Asian plans in disarray.

A spokesman said newspaper reports that the future of Schrempp, whose dream of building a global automotive group became a nightmare for shareholders, would be discussed at a supervisory board meeting this week were "nonsense".

Underlining the problems the group faces in Asia, South Korea's top auto maker Hyundai Motor Co said on Monday it was talking to DaimlerChrysler about cooperating on a "project-by-project" basis rather than in a full-scale alliance.

Pressed by the Korea Stock Exchange to clarify reports that the companies may end their alliance, Hyundai said in a brief statement the two were discussing all options to reshape it.

Supervisory board sources told Reuters that the future of the group's strategy in Asia would be discussed at a meeting of the board -- which is also responsible for executive personnel decisions -- in New York starting at 1400 GMT on Thursday.

The group is also due to report first-quarter figures on Thursday showing a two percent decline in operating profit due to new model costs at its Mercedes luxury brand, according to 24 analysts polled by Reuters.

Schrempp is visiting China for a long-scheduled meeting of the group's international advisory board. A group spokesman in Beijing said the CEO would meet Chinese partners but declined to comment on Mitsubishi Motors or Hyundai.

Without those two partnerships, DaimlerChrysler would generate just seven billion euros in sales in the region, where demand for autos is growing at its fastest, which is equivalent to about five percent of the group total.

Last Thursday's surprise decision by DaimlerChrysler to stop bankrolling Japan's only unprofitable carmaker was welcomed by investors, but some shareholders renewed their calls for Schrempp to go, saying the move was an admission that his strategy of acquiring stakes in carmakers around the world had failed.

A German Sunday newspaper, the Frankfurter Allgemeine Sonntagszeitung, said the supervisory board would discuss Schrempp's future.

"That is nonsense. That is absolutely not a topic of discussion," the DaimlerChrysler spokesman said.

Shares in DaimlerChrysler rose 1.1 percent to 38.58 euros by 1107 GMT, outperforming the DJ Stoxx European autos index , which was down 0.35 percent.

ECKRODT RESIGNS AT MITSUBISHI

Shareholder anger escalated rapidly following Daimler's decision to extend Schrempp's contract by three years before official details on the company's role in Mitsubishi's planned capital increase were to be released.

Mitsubishi Motors said on Monday that Rolf Eckrodt, a former Daimler executive, had stepped down as its chief executive following the decision by the German group not to back a multi-billion dollar rescue and to cut off all financial aid.

Three Mitsubishi group companies who together own 23 percent of Mitsubishi Motors vowed continued support for the carmaker, saying they would help it craft a new medium-term business plan without the Stuttgart-based group.

The acknowledgement that Mitsubishi wasn't worth the billions of euros in aid needed to return it to health could mean Schrempp's grand strategy of creating a "World Inc" carmaker might be thrown overboard and Schrempp along with it.

On Friday, Schrempp was further broadsided by former Chrysler shareholder Kirk Kerkorian, who is suing Daimler for more than $1 billion in damages.

The Las Vegas casino owner called the Daimler "merger of equals" with Chrysler a fraud and accused the defendants of acting with "evil motive" by not portraying the deal as the de facto takeover it was.

Schrempp was the architect behind the merger with Chrysler and the acquisition of the stake in Mitsubishi.

To see a Reuters poll on DaimlerChrysler's first-quarter results, please click on [ID:nL23104473]

(Additional reporting by Alexander Huebner in Stuttgart and Chang-Ran Kim in Tokyo)