Kerkorian, through his associate, Jerome York, has expressed frustration with G.M. management's pace on a turnaround plan. Mr. York, who sits on G.M.'s board, called in a January speech for G.M. to eliminate some of its divisions and praised Mr. Ghosn's turnaround at Nissan. Mr. Ghosn and Mr. Wagoner met for the first time on July 14 and again last week in Paris. But even before the Paris meeting, word emerged that G.M. had severe doubts about an alliance with the French and Japanese companies. G.M. proposed that Renault and Nissan make a multibillion-dollar compensation payment up front, to reflect G.M.'s belief that it brought more value to the merger. Meanwhile, Nissan and Renault executives warned their G.M. counterparts that they needed to be concerned about Toyota, which could pass G.M. this year to become the world's biggest auto company.