Malaysia's DRB-Hicom today said it expects to finalise negotiations to take over the Suzuki car franchise in the country by the end of this year in a move that will expand its auto business.

Auto and banking group DRB-Hicom is the sole distributor for Honda, Chevrolet, Mitsubishi four-wheel-drives, Citroen and Tata vehicles in Malaysia.

Chairman Mohamad Saleh Sulong was quoted by national news agency Bernama as saying that talks with Suzuki Motors Corp had started in the middle of 2004.

"I'm looking towards having all these wrapped up within the course of the year. We also hope to start selling by this year," he said.

Once an agreement was reached, Saleh said DRB-Hicom would form a joint venture company with Suzuki Motors and two other unnamed parties.

DRB-Hicom was also keen to assemble Suzuki vehicles but this would depend on the impact of a new tax regime introduced by the government in January under a regional free trade pact, he said.

Malaysia has cut import duties to 20 percent on cars that were at least 40 percent produced within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), but will defer reducing duties to the required level of below five percent only in 2008.

The reduction was to have been made in 2003 under the Asean Free Trade Area (Afta) agreement but Malaysia won a two-year extension until 2005 to protect its national carmakers.