Four German states to seek separate solution with Opel (Extra)

Jun 10, 2010, 14:59 GMT

Berlin - The four German states home to Opel factories decided Thursday to seek a solution for ailing carmaker Opel without federal intervention, after Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle ruled out state credit guarantees.

The premiers of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia and Rhineland-Palatinate announced the decision after meeting Chancellor Angela Merkel to discuss ways of protecting Opel's 26,000 German employees.

Kurt Beck, the premier of Rhineland-Palatinate, criticised Merkel after the meeting, and said she had offered no new solutions for Opel.

'We are all bitterly disappointed,' said Beck, who is of the opposition Social Democrats (SPD).

The premier of North Rhine-Westphalia, Juergen Ruettgers, said the four states were open to new negotiations with Opel and its US owner, General Motors. He said that a number of possibilities were being discussed, but did not go into details.

The previous day, Bruederle formally rejected General Motors' application for 1.1 billion euros (1.3 billion dollars) of state aid for subsidiary Opel.

Hours later, Merkel publicly disagreed with her minister and insisted, 'The last word has not been spoken.'

Merkel's upstaging of her economics minister, from the coalition's junior Free Democratic Party (FDP), exposed the depth of an ongoing split within the centre-right government.