Yum Brands to globalize Taco Bell chain: report

An employee sweeps the sidewalk in front of a Taco Bell fast food restaurant in New York December 7, 2006.

(Reuters) - Yum Brands Inc (YUM.N) wants to build its Taco Bell fast-food chain into a global brand with locations worldwide, its chief executive and chairman David Novak told the Wall Street Journal in an interview.

In general, "we should do better outside the United States than we have in the U.S.," Novak told the paper.

Taco Bell, which has been the company's most profitable U.S. brand, will open in Spain by the beginning of next year and in India by April, the paper said.

Novak told the paper that the lack of authenticity in the chain's Mexican cuisine is an advantage. "It owns its own category," he said.

Yum, which also owns the Pizza Hut and KFC chains, has tweaked the Taco Bell menu to adapt to local tastes -- it won't serve beef in India -- but says it wants to keep it mostly the same as in the US, the paper said.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; editing by John Stonestreet)