Germany’s finance minister said on Saturday that all sides have reached a deal for the Canadian auto parts maker Magna to take over General Motor’s Opel unit.

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier addresses the media upon his arrival at the chancellery for talks in Berlin, May 29, 2009. (Xinhua/Reuters Photo)

Under the agreement, Opel will be put under the care of a trustee later Saturday. The German government will also provide a 2.1-billion-U.S.-dollar bridge loan to support Opel to survive.

The German government has been pursuing ways to prevent Opel from being dragged into bankruptcy by it’s owner General Motors, which is expected to seek bankruptcy protection early next week.

Siegfried Wolf, a co-CEO of Magna, said he believed the agreement with GM will be inked in five weeks time, despite the fact that there were still some details to be settled.

The agreement came after Fiat Group SpA pulled out of the race for Opel on Friday, saying that it faced “unreasonable” funding demands from the German government.

General Motors Europe, which includes the Opel unit, employs a total of 55,000 people in European countries. Nearly half of the people are employed in Germany at Opel plants in Bochum, Eisenach, Ruesselsheim and Kaiserslautern.

After staying away from the talks, Fiat turned its attention to a deal with Chrysler and is waiting for a U.S. court’s decision on the deal. Fiat is on the verge of taking control of a 20 percent stake in Chrysler.

Magna, which has 70,000 employees in 326 plants in 25 countries and supplies components and systems to many of the world’s leading carmakers, wants to use Opel to enter Russian market, a fast-growing car market before the economic crisis hit in late 2008.

VietNamNet/Xinhuanet