Struggling Japanese automaker Mitsubishi Motors Corp. said Friday it fell deep into the red in fiscal 2003, blaming the slide in part on increased competition and auto loan-related losses in the core U.S. market.

In its consolidated earnings report for the year that ended March 31, Mitsubishi Motors recorded a net loss of 215.42 billion yen, having logged a profit of 37.36 billion yen the previous year.

The company said it fell way short of its earnings projection because of intensified competition in the U.S. market and an increase in provisions to cover losses resulting from its easy-term auto loans to U.S. consumers.

Among other factors, the embattled carmaker attributed the dismal results to an increase in sales promotion costs.

Mitsubishi Motors also registered a pretax loss of 110.30 billion yen, compared with the previous year's profit of 54.34 billion yen, on a 35.1 percent drop in sales to 2.519 trillion yen.

Without special factors such as the spinoff of its truck and bus division in January 2003, the sales contraction would have been 7.9 percent, the company said.

Sales in the domestic market dropped 33.5 percent to 1.564 trillion yen and those in the North American market fell a deeper 50.2 percent to 599.7 billion yen.

On a per-share basis, Mitsubishi Motors reported a net loss of 145.22 yen against a profit of 25.35 yen the previous year.

For fiscal 2003, the company will continue to pay no dividend.

Mitsubishi Motors expects a bumpy road ahead for its revival plans, predicting a larger loss and smaller sales for fiscal 2004 -- a net loss of 230 billion yen and a pretax loss of 150 billion yen on sales of 2.250 trillion yen.