General Motors Corp. said Thursday it will terminate its joint research on fuel cell-powered vehicles with Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. at the end of this month.

GM is expected to seek to develop fuel cell vehicles on its own with the aim of achieving the possibility of mass production of such vehicles by 2010, in view of high growth potential in demand for the next-generation environment-friendly vehicles.

Toyota and GM said Thursday they have agreed to extend their advanced technology collaboration agreement two more years with a focus on safety and congestion-related technologies, and industry codes and standards, they said in a press release.

The GM-Toyota collaboration, which began in 1999 and would have expired at the end of this month, will be extended to March 31, 2008.