General Motors Corp.'s (GM) European division Wednesday signaled it is open to selling a stake or a forming a strategic alliance with a partner.

"If it makes sense for the sustainable success of GM Europe and Opel, management is also willing to negotiate partnerships and shareholdings by third parties," said the company and labor representatives in a joint statement.

They added that the company will immediately enter talks with labor representatives over a restructuring program aimed at shaping a sustainable financial basis for the operations.

The two sides said they will examine possibilities to see how compulsory layoffs and plant closures can be avoided.

A labor deal rules out forced layoffs at the company's German Opel brand until the end of 2010. Many other European locations have similar deals in place.

The comments come after GM Tuesday said it is counting on $6 billion in financial support from foreign governments and could potentially need billions more from the U.S. government in coming years to cover pension obligations, even if it gets the additional aid it requests.

GM is targeting $1.2 billion in savings from its European operations. The company said 26,000 of the planned 47,000 job cuts would come from outside the U.S., and warned of the possible closure or spinoff of European plants in "high-cost locations."

Media reports have suggested the company could close as many as four of its nine European manufacturing facilities, triggering calls from union leaders for its Opel and Vauxhall brands to be spun off or sold.

The German government Tuesday called on GM to offer a clear concept for the future of its business in Europe.

Following a meeting with GM Europe and Opel last November, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said the government would conduct a "constructive" examination of a possible state liquidity guarantee for Opel, and that this would depend on any finance being put to use in Germany.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck Wednesday told reporters that he is a "skeptic" when it comes to the possibility of acquiring a stake in Opel.

He declined to say whether liquidity guarantees would be an option for the government.

 
   Company Web site: www.gm.com 
 
   -By Christoph Rauwald, Dow Jones Newswires; +49 69 29 725 512; christoph.rauwald@dowjones.com

(Andrea Thomas and Doug Cameron contributed to this article.)