TOKYO -- Honda Motor Co. said today it is cutting production in Japan and North America by an additional 50,000 vehicles amid a severe slump in global sales. Japan's No. 2 automaker said output in North America will fall by 29,000 units, affecting Honda's three plants in the region -- Ontario, Canada; Marysville/East Liberty, Ohio; and Lincoln, Ala. Due to the production cuts, Honda's overall output in North America will drop 12 percent to 1.26 million units in the fiscal year ending March 31. The Ontario plant makes the popular Civic, while the Ohio and Alabama factories roll out the Accord sedan and Odyssey minivan. Honda will also cut domestic production a further 21,000 units.

Toyota Motor Corp ., the world's biggest automaker, denied a report that the company will cut worldwide vehicle production at least 20 percent this year. "We don't have any figures to disclose as it's difficult to see through the situation," Hideaki Homma, a company spokesman, said Monday by phone. Toyota will produce about 6.5 million vehicles this year, down from an estimated 8.21 million vehicles in 2008, as the global recession damps demand, the Japanese newspaper Tokyo Shimbun reported Monday, without saying where it got the information. The figure excludes output by units Daihatsu Motor Co . and Hino Motors Ltd., it said.

A trade group representing Lear Corp., TRW Automotive Holdings Corp . and other suppliers said it's preparing to ask for U.S. government funding in the next few weeks to avert hundreds of bankruptcies. About a dozen chief executives and chief financial officers met Monday to complete a request for federal aid as parts makers face the worst February payday in decades.