General Motors Corp. cannot rule out eventually closing one of the three European plants that make the Opel Astra model, Chief Executive Rick Wagoner said in a German newspaper interview published yesterday. Although the US carmaker's European arm has made great progress in improving its financial performance, it still has work to do to contribute to the group's restructuring, he told the Handelsblatt daily.

"At the moment there is no decision on this issue," he said. "But given the situation in the auto industry you can't rule it out."

GM Europe, which made a first-quarter profit of $88 million excluding one-off items, makes the Astra/Vauxhall compact in Bochum, Germany; Ellesmere Port in Britain, and Antwerp, Belgium.

It is set to decide by early next year where to build the next generation of the Astra to be launched in 2010.

GM Europe is in the process of cutting 12,000 jobs - nearly a fifth of the workforce - to slash its fixed costs. GM, the world's biggest carmaker, also plans to close a dozen North American plants and cut 30,000 union jobs there by 2008. On other issues, Mr Wagoner reiterated that GM had no intention of selling its Swedish brand Saab, whose results he called "encouraging" even though it needed more and better products.

He said China would some day play a role as a major exporter of cars. "We do not exclude delivering (cars) from there to other countries. But I do not see any Chinese-made vehicles on the US market in the next five years," he added.