The British Broadcasting Corporation said on its website that the Chrysler Group's chief economist, Van Jolissaint, had attacked European attitudes toward global warming at a meeting of the US auto industry's chief economists.

"While describing different interpretations of global climate change at the meeting of the Society of Automotive Analysts in Detroit, Michigan, on Tuesday, ... DaimlerChrysler Chief Economist Van Jolissaint's comments concerning the company's policy on global climate change were misinterpreted," said Jason Vines, Chrysler's vice president for communications.

"A report by the BBC misquoted Mr. Jolissaint and provided misleading information to its listeners, viewers and readers concerning the position of DaimlerChrysler on global climate change," Vines said in a statement.

"We have asked the BBC to retract its report," he said.

The BBC said Jolissaint slammed a major British report on climate change by former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern that urged world leaders to act urgently to avert a looming environmental catastrophe.

The British broadcaster said Jolissaint "had been surprised by how much support there had been in the Daimler office in Stuttgart for these 'quasi-hysterical' policies that smacked of 'Chicken Little' politics -- referring to the US children's story in which Chicken Little runs around in circles saying 'the sky is falling.'"

But Vines said: "During the conference, while describing the view that 'some people might have' of a recently published report that has a more dramatic approach to the issue of global warming, Mr. Jolissaint specifically said, 'not me, of course.'"

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