DETROIT -- Dieter Zetsche, head of the Chrysler division of DaimlerChrysler AG, rejects the contention by Canadian Auto Workers president Buzz Hargrove that the company owes the union a new assembly plant in Canada.

"I don't think we owe anything to anybody," Mr. Zetsche said yesterday at the North American International Auto Show in Detroit. "I think we did the best thing anybody can do to his or her employees by bringing great successful products to the Canadian plants," he told a group of Canadian reporters yesterday.

Mr. Zetsche, president of DaimlerChrysler Corp., was responding to Mr. Hargrove's comment to The Globe and Mail last month that Canada should be first on the list for any new plants because the auto maker promised a major investment in Windsor, Ont., in 1999 and made what the union considers a similar promise three years later.

DaimlerChrysler is adding a third shift at its assembly plant in Brampton, Ont., and made a major investment at its Windsor minivan plant, so Mr. Hargrove doesn't have much of an argument, Mr. Zetsche said.

He called for the union and the company to co-operate to make the auto maker better. "We better work together to grow our market share rather than fight about who gets a piece of [what could be] a shrinking cake," he said. "We have a very good chance to become the attacker."

There's no strong need for DaimlerChrysler to add new plants in North America now, industry analysts said, especially with a plant in Toledo, Ohio, under construction. That factory replaces an aging plant that turns out Jeep models.

The Chrysler 300C and Dodge Magnum assembled in Brampton are selling well and production of the new Dodge Charger will start there this summer, with the addition of a third shift. The auto maker will also get more of the vehicles by increasing production at an assembly plant owned by Magna International Inc. in Austria.

"We should stay reasonable," Mr. Zetsche said. "We don't want to get into a situation where capacity is driving us in this segment."

The key company focus is improving by 2007 to be the leader in productivity -- as measured by the average number of hours required to assemble a vehicle -- and quality, and be perceived as the product leader, he added.

The auto maker will meet those targets, he insisted, becoming one of the predators in the automotive jungle instead of one of the prey.