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DETROIT (AP) - Chrysler Group chief executive Dieter Zetsche says a weak offering of new vehicles was the main drag on profits in the past year, but he hopes to remedy that with 25 new or redesigned cars and trucks over the next few years.

Zetsche, speaking Wednesday night to a gathering of Wall Street analysts in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show, said he inherited a product pipeline with two or three annual vehicle launches when he took control of DaimlerChrysler's North American unit three years ago.

One of Zetsche's first tasks was to beef up that supply. This year Chrysler will introduce nine all-new or heavily redesigned vehicles.

"We're now clearly seeing the start of the harvest of the seeds we planted on the engineering side throughout the past three years," he said.

Chrysler's performance also has been hurt by an influx of competitors - new vehicles from Asian and European companies arriving in North American showrooms - and by a fierce pricing war with General Motors and Ford.

Chrysler lost $1.1 billion in the second quarter but is on track to reach a break-even profit target for 2003. The company earned $639 million in 2002 after losing $4.7 billion in 2001.

Zetsche said Chrysler was able to offset product deficiencies and resulting poor revenue for a while with heavy cost-cutting. He said the company has cut material costs by 15 per cent and fixed costs by 25 per cent since the turnaround effort started.

The company also reduced its head count from 127,000 to roughly 92,000.

"But this is basically defence," he said. "That's blocking and tackling. The offence, the revenue side, obviously we haven't been similarly successful."

Zetsche said he was encouraged by a slight U.S. market share gain for Chrysler in the fourth quarter of 2003, but for the year the company's share fell to 12.8 per cent, from 13.1 per cent in 2002. Chrysler's 2003 U.S. sales fell 3.5 per cent.

Business was helped late in the year by the Chrysler Pacifica sports tourer and the introduction of the Dodge Durango sport utility vehicle.

Among the new vehicles scheduled for 2004: the rear-wheel-drive Chrysler 300C sedan, which Zetsche has called the brand's flagship; a convertible version of the PT Cruiser; and a revamped minivan lineup.