Ford F-150 recall greatly expanded: regulator

WASHINGTON/DETROIT (Reuters) - Ford Motor Co and U.S. safety regulators have agreed to a greatly expanded recall of the best-selling vehicle in North America, the Ford F-150 pickup truck, the regulators said.

The recall is for a possible short circuit that could cause airbags to deploy unexpectedly, and involves nearly 1.2 million F-150 pickup trucks and few Lincoln Mark LT vehicles, said the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The recall affects trucks from the model years 2004 to 2006 and Lincoln Mark LTs from model year 2006.

Previously, 144,000 of the pickup trucks were recalled. The expansion comes after talks between the automaker and the safety regulators in Washington.

(Reporting by John Crawley in Washington and Bernie Woodall in Detroit, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)