As a way to accelerate efforts to repay its debts, Daiei Inc., the country's leading supermarket chain operator, plans to sell its stake in publishing firm Recruit Co., top officials of the firm said Tuesday.

Daiei owns a 35.2 percent stake in Recruit. By selling at least some of its shares, Daiei hopes to trim massive interest-bearing liabilities totaling 2 trillion yen for its group.

Speaking at a news conference, Daiei President Tadasu Toba acknowledged that his firm is now in talks with Recruit management over the stock sale, although he said it has yet to be decided to whom and for how much Daiei will sell its shares.

Toba said fewer than 10 companies have approached Daiei over the purchase its stake in Recruit.

Daiei is undertaking massive restructuring efforts under a three-year program after the Kobe-based company suffered huge losses due to its aggressive business expansion during the bubble economy of the late 1980s.

Also on Tuesday, Daiei revised its business forecast for the first half of fiscal 1999 from a 500 million yen net profit to a 9.8 billion yen net loss.

Despite the downward revision, however, the firm's forecast for the full business year that ends in February remains intact as the company plans to make up for losses with revenues from the sales of shares in Recruit as well as in its subsidiary Lawson Inc., a convenience store chain.