The world's two biggest car makers, Ford and General Motors have seen their vehicle sales slump by 12% in May.

Ford, which has been struggling to stem financial losses, sold 329,903 vehicles in the US in May.

The figure, which included the Michigan-based group's foreign brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Volvo, was 11.9% below a year ago.

Car sales fared even worse, down 14%, while truck sales dropped 10%.

More losses

The huge losses that blighted Ford last year and cost its chief executive his job have continued into 2002, although their size has been reduced.

Jacques Nasser was ousted as chief executive of Ford last October.

In the first three months of this year, Ford's sales were $39.86bn, down 6% on the same period of 2001.

The group made a net loss of $800m (�554m) in the first three months of this year, its fourth quarterly loss in a row and a huge slide from the first quarter of 2001, which had returned a profit of $1.06bn.

Not including one-off costs, such as a $708m charge related to an investment in UK car repair firm Kwik-Fit, the loss per share was 6 cents.

Strong sales outlook

Ford's rival, General Motors, reported a 12% drop in its May US vehicle sales.

It sold 219,470 trucks, a fall of 12.1% compared with a year ago.

Car sales fell 12.4% to 183,566 units.

But it raised its earnings estimate for the second three months of the financial year because of continued cost-cutting and the strong sales outlook for the year.