German govt calls meetings on car industry aid

FRANKFURT/BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany has called for meetings of ministries, states and producers to discuss aid for the car industry as calls mount to give ailing manufacturers such as General Motor's GM.N Opel unit access to cash.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday she had invited the Opel management and the workers' council to meet on Monday, following Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck's call for a meeting early next week of the relevant ministries and states.

Steinbrueck said on Friday he wanted to discuss possible aid for the sector, but gave no details of any government plans.

German carmaker Opel has asked for financial guarantees if its parent GM, which said the downturn in global car markets might leave it without cash early next year, stops financing its development and assembly facilities.

Opel is the first European carmaker to request financial guarantees from state authorities to keep its business running.

Roland Koch, caretaker premier of the state of Hesse, where Opel is based, has said the GM unit needed guarantees of more than 1 billion euros ($1.27 billion), two thirds of which would be provided by the federal government.

A source within Opel confirmed the figure, while a spokesman for the company declined to comment.

"This is about state guarantees of no more than 1 billion euros," the source said, declining to be named.

Opel needs the state guarantees should General Motors not repay billions of euros it owes Opel and which the German company needs for investments in new models, Klaus Franz, deputy head of Opel's supervisory board, said on Friday.