Nissan is proposing buying around 20 percent of Chrysler, according to a report in a Detroit newspaper.

That would bring the troubled US car maker into the Franco-Japanese alliance that already exists between Nissan and Renault.

Reportedly Carlos Ghosn, who heads Renault and Nissan, recently responded to an approach from Chrysler’s majority owner Cerberus Capital Management.

Nissan, which has several joint car projects underway with Chrysler, would not comment on the report.

Cerberus, which is a private equity firm, owns 80 percent of Chrysler that it bought last year when Germany’s Daimler ended an unsuccessful merger.

Daimler still owns 20 percent of Chrysler, but has indicated it would like to sell that to Cerberus.

General Motors is also being spoken of as a possible suitor for Chrysler and indeed the report in the Detroit News said that Cerberus would actually prefer a deal with GM either a merger or an alliance.

Neither Chrysler nor GM would comment on that.

Both companies are losing money as sales continue to plummet and they can no longer gain easy access to credit.

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