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The U.K. government is seeking an early meeting with Austrian-Canadian auto parts group Magna International Inc. (MGA) over the future of U.K. General Motors unit Vauxhall, Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said Saturday.

Mandelson had already sat down with Magna officials in recent weeks and said the company had made it clear then they were committed to continued production by Vauxhall in the U.K.

"Now I will be seeking a very early, further meeting with them to reinforce that commitment and to make it into a cast-iron guarantee, and I'll be concentrating on that as soon as these initial talks have been completed between them and General Motors USA," Mandelson said in a statement.

After hours of talks, the German government said early Saturday it had selected Magna as a partner for General Motors Corp.'s (GM) German Adam Opel GmbH unit, ahead of a likely bankruptcy filing of Opel's parent GM in the U.S. The new company will take charge of all of GM's European operations.

Germany will provide EUR1.5 billion in bridge financing for Opel, paving the way for a takeover by Magna and its two Russian partners. Magna has teamed up with Russian auto maker OAO GAZ Group (GAZA.RS) and state- controlled OAO Sberbank (SBER.RS) in its bid for Opel.

Mandelson said the U.K. government understands it will take time to clarify the future of Vauxhall, which has some 5,000 workers in the U.K.

"We are at the beginning of a process of due diligence, of examination by Magna and their partner, the Russian Savings Bank, of the finances of General Motors in Europe as a whole. Over the coming weeks and months, we will be talking to them about their detailed plans and how those will affect Vauxhall here in the U.K.," he said.

Mandelson reiterated the U.K.'s willingness to provide longer-term funding for the new company which emerged but tied it to the new company's commitment to Vauxhall's future.

"We accept that the new company going forward will need government help from a range of European governments. We have accepted that we will play our fair share in that. But just how much will depend on the needs, the requests of the new owners, and what they're prepared to put or keep in production and employment here in the UK," he said in the statement.

In an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. Saturday, Mandelson welcomed the progress in the talks in Germany but acknowledged that job losses were likely.

"I judge positively that with new owners... it looks as if GM in Europe can be saved, it can be turned around but of course, it will involve change. There is excess capacity not just in this company but in the car manufacturing industry as a whole, and not just across Europe but across the world," he said.

-By Laurence Norman, Dow Jones Newswires; 44-207-842-9270; Laurence.norman@dowjones.com