Japan's fourth and fifth largest car makers have both reported healthy profit increases after struggling to overcome weak markets.

Mitsubishi Motors, which is 37% owned by German car firm DaimlerChrysler, hauled itself back into profit in the six months to 30 September.

Mazda Motor posted a four-fold increase in profits for the same period. Mazda has a tie up with US car giant Ford, which owns 33.4% of the Japanese firm.

Both Japanese car makers said their improved performance was partly due to the weak Japanese yen, which has helped boost their earnings from overseas sales in recent months.

Yen jitters

However, fears about a US military onslaught on Iraq have been weakening the dollar and strengthening the yen in recent days.

Increased domestic demand for Japanese cars may therefore be needed to keep the two firms' recovery on the road.

Both firms have been restructuring to cut costs.

Mitsubishi Motors, which is Japan's fourth biggest car maker, posted net profits of 6.6bn yen ($55.4m; �35m) for the six months to 30 September.

This contrasts with a loss of 31.5bn yen in the same period of 2001.

Turnaround plans

"We have made steady progress in our turnaround plan and work hard to achieve profitability," the company said.

Mitsubishi's sales were up 5.6% at 1.62 trillion yen.

At Mazda, ranked fifth among Japanese car firms, net profit rose to 5.5bn yen, compared to 1.3bn yen in the same six months of last year.

Sales rose 12% to 1.16tillion yen.

Mazda president Lewis Booth said the firm was "achieving sustainable, profitable growth".

Analysts agreed: "It's impressive to see their aggressiveness in cutting costs," said Hakan Hedstrom, a fund manager at Commerz International Management.