COLUMBUS, Ind. — Officials of Cummins Inc. said they would go to court if necessary to prevent any of their engine-making competitors from wiggling out of the terms of a 1998 pact to build cleaner diesel engines.

Executives of heavy truck engine maker Cummins Inc. said they would go to court, if necessary, to force competitors to abide by terms of a 1998 federal court consent decree that requires the group produce cleaner engines by October 2002.