TOKYO, JAPAN - Countries face massive job losses unless they move quickly to provide financial assistance to their carmakers, Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn warned Monday.

"Job destruction will be massive in those countries that do not rapidly help the auto sector to finance itself," said Ghosn, who turned Nissan around a decade ago.

"It will not be seen immediately, but in a few years," he told a symposium in Japan.

The global slowdown has badly shaken Japan's automakers, which in recent years have cashed in on worldwide demand for their cars.

Fears are also mounting of a collapse of the Big Three US automakers, which are pleading for urgent government aid.