TOKYO - JAPANESE electronics makers Sharp and Toshiba said on Friday they will join forces in flat-panel televisions, stepping up efforts to fend off increasingly fierce global competition.

The two companies have agreed to collaborate closely to meld Sharp's technologies in liquid crystal displays with Toshiba's expertise in image-processing chips, which are becoming ever more vital for advanced TVs.

'The global market for LCD TVs is growing at a brisk pace, a trend expected to continue in coming years,' they said in a joint statement.

'Each company aims to secure a leading position in the LCD TV market, and to reinforce its capabilities in LCDs and semiconductors, by overcoming increasingly intense global competition,' they added.

Under the alliance, which is due to begin in the fiscal year from next April, Toshiba will buy large quantities of LCD panels from Sharp for use in its Regza-brand televisions with screen sizes of more than 32 inches.

For its part, Sharp will buy semiconductors from Toshiba to use in its Aquos-brand LCD TVs.

By the year to March 2011, Sharp aims to buy from Toshiba about 50 per cent of its large scale integrated circuits, a key component of flat TVs.

Toshiba in turn plans to source 40 per cent of its LCD modules from Sharp.

Sharp is a pioneer of LCD screens, having launched one of the world's first LCD pocket calculators in 1973.

The company has seen four straight years of record profits as consumers dump their bulky traditional-style TVs for sleek flat panel ones.

On Thursday, Sharp announced that it had become the top shareholder in its financially troubled rival Pioneer as part of a broader tie-up in response to growing rivalry among top manufacturers. -- AFP