With its U.S. sales down 32 percent for November, Toyota, Motor Corp. has frozen its plan to use a facility near Tupelo, Mississippi to build Prius hybrids in the United States.

Attributing the halting of the $1.3 billion project to "the steep decline" in the U.S. auto market, Toyota set no timetable for the resumption of construction.

Sales of the Prius are down as a result of cheaper gasoline, which hit a summer peak of $4 a gallon, but is now selling for under $1.50 a gallon in many parts of the country. Only 8,660 Prius vehicles were sold in November, down from 16,737 earlier in the year.

Toyota is under pressure to meet reduced operating profit forecast in the vicinity of $6.6 billion by the end of the company's fiscal year on March 31. The company is cutting its temporary workers, slashing research and development costs, and delaying new factory launches.

The Tupelo plan, announced in February 2007, was originally intended to produce Highlander crossovers, but when the market for SUVs declined rapidly, Toyota switched the focus of the site to Prius production.

The building is approximately 90 percent finished and construction will continue, but no equipment for the plan has been ordered. The approximately 100 administrative and management workers employed at the site will keep their jobs.