The US administration will only buy vehicles using alternative energy sources to equip its fleet by the end of 2015, President Barack Obama announced Tuesday.

The timeline is part of Obama's plan to cut US oil imports by a third by 2025 and put a million advanced vehicles on the road by 2015.

"By December 31, 2015, all new light duty vehicles leased or purchased by agencies must be alternative fueled vehicles, such as hybrid or electric, compressed natural gas or biofuel," Obama said in a memorandum sent to heads of all US executive departments and agencies.

"The federal government operates the largest fleet of light duty vehicles in America. We owe a responsibility to American citizens to lead by example and contribute to meeting our national (energy) goals."

The memo updated a previous text dated October 5, 2009 in which Obama had asked that government agencies reduce their vehicle fleet's oil consumption by 30 percent.

At the time, the president was still counting on Congress to pass a bill fighting global warming, an initiative that ultimately failed in the face of opposition from lawmakers and that seems unlikely to return to the top of the Obama administration's agenda.

But Obama has continued to seek stricter pollution norms for light vehicles and trucks through regulation.

His latest memo also limits the size of the administration's vehicles and requires rigorous management of the fleet to correspond to needs. Emergency and security forces' vehicles are granted exceptions to the rule.

earlier related report
Toyota denies it will boost output to 90% in June
Tokyo (AFP) May 25, 2011 - Japanese carmaker Toyota on Wednesday denied reports that it plans to return in June to about 90 percent of its pre-quake domestic production.

The reports had given a lift to Toyota's share price on the Nikkei stock index, with the car giant ending Wednesday up 2.15 percent at 3,315 yen.

But spokesman Paul Nolasco told AFP: "We are making efforts to return to normal production as soon as possible but there is no change for now to Toyota's production plan announced earlier."

The company said this month it expected to recover around 70 percent of normal levels by June.

The Nikkei daily said Wednesday, however, that the carmaker was planning to boost production to about 12,000 units per day next month at its 17 plants in Japan, as parts procurement had been recovering more smoothly than expected.

Before the quake disaster the firm had an estimated production of 13,000 units per day in June and July, the paper said.

Toyota also aims to bring forward its schedule to be back to normal vehicle output by around November or December, the Nikkei said.

The March 11 earthquake and the resulting tsunami hammered production, shattered supply chains and crippled electricity-generating facilities, including a nuclear power plant at the centre of an ongoing atomic emergency.

Amid power and parts shortages, Toyota had announced production disruptions domestically and in the United States, Europe, China and Australia because of the crisis, temporarily slowing output or shutting plants.

Separately, Toyota announced that it will boost production in Indonesia to 140,000 units per year by 2013 from the current 100,000 to meet growing local demand.

The production increase at Toyota Motor Manufacturing Indonesia will come with a fresh investment of 16.5 billion yen (200 million dollars), Toyota said in a statement.