Germany and U.S. get last chance to save Opel

By Noah Barkin

BERLIN (Reuters) - Germany and the United States get what may be their last chance to save Opel on Friday when they try to put a heated row behind them and forge a plan to shield the carmaker from a bankruptcy of its parent General Motors.

A first round of talks that began in Berlin on Wednesday evening and ended 12 hours was described as a "disaster" by German participants.

The United States government balked at Germany's plan to place Opel assets in a trust while a deal with a suitor was finalised and GM GM.N shocked negotiators with a surprise request for $500 million (314 million pounds) to fill a gaping funding hole.

That infuriated Berlin, which refused to release 1.5 billion euros in temporary financing it has pledged to Opel, a company based in Ruesselsheim near Frankfurt that employs 25,000 staff in Germany and has been under GM's wing for 80 years.

The governments, GM and the two remaining suitors for Opel, Italy's Fiat (FIA.MI) and Canada's Magna (MGa.TO), will try to clinch a deal on Friday that eluded them at the marathon session in Angela Merkel's Chancellery building.

Time is of the essence. On Thursday, GM announced it had reached a debt-for-equity swap with major bondholders, the clearest sign yet that bankruptcy is imminent.

Germany wants Opel's assets in the trust to shield them from GM creditors once it files for Chapter 11.

"The goal of the Americans is to get as much money as they can from the Europeans," German Economy Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg told ZDF television. "My goal is to prevent German taxpayer money from flowing to the United States."