Ghosn is facing financial misconduct charges, which he denies. He was freed in April from jail in Japan on a $4.5 million bail.

Renault's board members were asking the group's representatives to liaise with counterparts at Nissan to explore legal action to recover sums paid for by the Dutch jointly-owned subsidiary Renault-Nissan BV, the board said in a statement after reviewing results of a joint audit mission with Nissan.

The suspect expenses amount to about 11 million euros, which include air travel fees, gifts to non-profit organisations and "certain other expenses incurred for Mr. Ghosn," Renault's board said.

Ghosn has been indicted four times in Japan, twice on charges that he failed to disclose a portion of his earnings to authorities and twice for aggravated breach of trust.

The latter included an allegation that he received $5 million in payments from a Nissan dealership in Oman after authorising incentive payments to it from Nissan.

Ghosn has said he is the victim of a boardroom coup, accusing "backstabbing" former colleagues of conspiring to oust him as Nissan chairman.

($1 = 0.8883 euros)

(Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Edmund Blair)