Berlin cautious over Opel bailout deal

BERLIN, March 2 (Chinese media) -- Berlin is still cautious over automaker Opel's bailout deal after a top-level meeting between executives from the company and German ministers here on Monday to discuss a request for several billion euros in state aid.

"There are still a lot of unanswered questions," Germany's new Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said after his meeting with Opel's CEO Hans Demant and Carl-Peter Forster, head of the Europe division of Opel's parent company General Motors.

Guttenberg said the German government had not yet made up its mind and would not allow itself to be put under "time pressure."

Forster said that Opel needed 3.3 billion euros (4.2 billion U.S. dollars) Europe-wide to survive.

"We are agreed that we will ask other countries, in which we have significant activities, to contribute to this financing requirement. How much and how this will happen still needs to be discussed," Forster said.

However, Guttenberg said the company's restructuring plan first had to be examined in detail.

"We will examine, we will evaluate and on the basis of this evaluation we will work out whether a further government decision is required," the minister said.

Guttenberg said that he would clear up any unanswered questions with Opel's parent company GM and the U.S. government during a trip to the United States in March.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel has also been cautious. Last Saturday, Merkel reminded fellow party members at a Christian Democratic Union meeting that there were "clear rules" governing state aid.

Berlin has already made it clear that no state aid would be allowed to flow into the coffers of Opel's U.S.-based parent company GM in Detroit. A spokesman for the German government said on Monday that another major concern for Berlin was ensuring that German taxpayers' money did not go towards saving jobs in the United States.