Nissan North America Inc. will build a midsize pickup truck for Suzuki Motor Corp. at Nissan's plant in Smyrna, starting in 2008, the companies announced Tuesday.

The pickup will be based on Nissan's Frontier midsize pickup and will be solely marketed by Suzuki in North America. Preparations are underway to retrofit the Smyrna plant.

In 2006, the Japanese automakers announced an agreement to expand the scope of a deal that also included Suzuki supplying Nissan Alto minicars in Japan.

Nissan spokeswoman Katherine Zachary said there were no current plans to add employees for the Suzuki line.

``The production will be achieved with the current work force,'' Zachary said in a telephone interview.

The news comes on the same day Suzuki officials announced plans to build a new compact hatchback in India that will be sold worldwide.