We do not agree with NHTSA's findings. Our testing and science show our tyres perform extremely well

John Lampe CEO and president, Bridgestone/Firestone

"We recognise that a lengthy confrontation with [the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA)] would continue to bring into question the quality of our products and delay our ongoing work of rebuilding our company," said John Lampe, chief executive of Bridgestone/Firestone.

Findings faulted

Mr Lampe said Firestone does not agree with NHTSA's findings, saying in company tests the tyres performed extremely well.

Bridgestone/Firestone's John Lampe has criticised additional recalls

The company said 768,000 of the 3.5 million tyres are still in use.

In acceding to the government's request for additional recalls, Firestone said the government will close its investigation of Firestone tyres, which began in May 2000.

In July, Federal Officials told Firestone that the company needed to recall an additional 4 million tyres for safety problems.

If Firestone, a unit of Japan's Bridgestone Corp, proved unwilling, it could have faced a forced recall.

Additional recall

The additional recall involves tyres made at plants other than the Decatur, Illinois, manufacturing facility that was suspected of producing all of the faulty tyres.

The additional recall involves Firestone Wilderness AT tyres produced in Joliet, Illinois, and Wilson, North Carolina, as well as Decatur.

Ford is using Goodyear and other suppliers to replace defective Firestone tyres

Also in June, Firestone announced it would close its Decatur plant where the bulk of the 6.5 million tyres it recalled last August were produced.

Firestone has admitted that tyres manufactured at its Decatur plant have had problems. Those tyres are believed to be the cause of rollover crashes that have resulted in 203 deaths and more than 700 injuries.

But the company has denied that tyres manufactured at its other plants suffer from the same tread-separation glitch and instead blamed the design of the Ford Explorer and Ford's demand for lowered tyre pressures.

Firestone has consistently defended the safety of its Wilderness AT tyres even after issuing a recall of the tyres last summer.

Massive recall

Ford last month began its own recall campaign to replace 13 million Firestone tyres, some of which had previously been recalled by Firestone.

The move caused Firestone to sever its 100-year-old relationship with the car maker and frustrated consumers who had already replaced recalled tyres.

Aside from severed relations between the two companies, the recall has taken a financial toll as well.

In announcing its second-quarter profits, Ford said it lost $551m (�389m) under the weight of its $3bn (�2.11bn) recall of Firestone tyres, as well as increased competition for its Explorer and other models.

For its part, Bridgestone, whose shares are traded on the Nikkei stock exchange in Tokyo, said in July it expects to post a yearly loss of 130bn yen ($1.05bn, �744m), compared with an earlier forecast of 58bn yen profit ($470m, �330m).