Japanese auto parts maker Takata Corp. is forming a panel to audit its manufacturing and come up with ways to make safe air bag inflators, but the company's response to a U.S. demand for a national inflator recall remains unclear.

Takata, which faces a midnight deadline to comply with the demand, issued a statement Tuesday detailing a Quality Assurance Panel chaired by former U.S. Transportation Secretary Samuel K. Skinner. The panel will have all the resources necessary to audit Takata's manufacturing processes and develop best practices to make inflators, the statement said. It will issue a report that will be made public.

The company also pledged to increase production of replacement inflators to satisfy growing recalls and to do more tests to find the exact cause of why the inflators can explode with too much force, sending shrapnel into cars and injuring people. At least five deaths have been linked to the problem worldwide.

But the statement didn't clearly say whether Takata will comply with a demand from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to declare driver's air bag inflators defective and expand a recall from high-humidity areas to the entire country. The company has until midnight to meet the demand or face civil fines and legal action.

The statement says Takata recognizes that NHTSA is urging the expanded recall and says the company will co-operate, but it seems to place the recall decision on automakers. "We will take all actions needed to advance the goal of safety for the driving public, including working to produce additional replacement units to support any further recalls that may be announced by our customers," the company said.

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