Berlin - German government officials held a fresh round of talks on Friday with representatives of ailing US carmaker General Motors (GM) and its German subsidiary Opel.

The meeting at Chancellor Angela Merkel's office in Berlin discussed state aid for the GM offshoot, which reportedly needs 7 billion euros (8.87 billion dollars) to stay afloat.

GM presented its own rescue plan to the government on Monday, but Merkel told the company's head of European operations, Carl-Peter Forster, that the measures did not go far enough.

Taking part in Friday's talks were German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg, top finance ministry official Joerg Asmussen, Forster, GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson and Opel chief executive Hans Demant.

The talks come a day after European Union Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen called for a crisis meeting of EU states hosting GM plants.

Last week GM posted a 30.9-billion-dollar loss for 2008 and issued a warning that 2009 would be a challenging year.

The Opel rescue strategy calls for a new joint European venture between the company and British-based GM subsidiary Vauxhall. Germany has been asked to contribute
3.3 billion euros to the scheme.

In addition to the funding requested from Germany, and financial input from GM and independent investors, Opel's rescue plan envisages savings of 1.2 billion euros, mainly through job cuts.

Opel employs 25,000 people at sites in four German states. An additional 25,000 suppliers depend in turn on the operation of these plants.

The complex ownership structures between Opel and its Detroit-based parent company need to be taken into consideration before Germany pledges any financial assistance, analysts said.

The mass circulation Bild newspaper reported Friday that GM was no longer in possession of Opel patents. It quoted government sources as saying GM deposited the patents with the US Treasury Department as security for billions of dollars in US state aid. (dpa)