Washington  - President Barack Obama's cabinet-level taskforce for the United States' ailing car manufacturers met for the first time on Friday, stressing the "urgency" of repairing an industry that is on the verge of collapse.

The group, led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and the White House's top economic advisor Larry Summers, is tasked with evaluating the survival prospects of General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC.

Berlin - Giant US carmaker General Motors' German offshoot Opel confirmed Friday that it will need greater state guarantees than requested to date.

The German government has said Opel required a total of 3.3 billion euro (4.2 billion dollars) in state guarantees, according to weekly Spiegel magazine. Previously, the car manufacturer had requested 1.8 billion euros of state securities.

Adam Opel GMBH confirmed an upward revision of the figures, but would not specify the amount.

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New York - A group of bondholders at the centre of General Motors Corp's struggle to survive have criticized the US carmaker's restructuring efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

GM faces pressure to strike a deal that would reduce its 27 billion dollars in debt by March 31, or risk losing 13.4 billion dollars in government loans.

The carmaker this week said it may need as much as 16.6 billion dollars more in emergency federal funds to survive a massive industrywide downturn since October.

Detroit  - General Motors (GM) has to date not made any decisions to close Opel auto works in Germany, the governor of the German province North Rhine Westphalia said Wednesday in Detroit.

Juergen Ruettgers, the top official in the province, talked to reporters after meeting in Detroit with Rick Wagoner, head of the beleaguered General Motors which owns the Opel line.

"We are so relieved," Ruettgers said. "There is no decision to close auto works in Germany, also not in Bochum."

New York  - Deere and Co, the world's largest maker of farm equipment, Wednesday posted a 45-per-cent drop in profits, to 204 million dollars, citing the recession and tight credit situation that constrains farmers from buying new machines.

Revenues sank slightly by 1 per cent, to 5.1 billion dollars, and could be further hurt by a drought in Latin America, the company said.

The company also lowered its projections for 2009 from 1.9 billion dollars to 1.5 billion dollars.