Italian automaker Fiat SpA (F.MI) Friday reiterated its interest in General Motors Corp.'s (GM) Adam Opel GmbH unit, but signaled there was nothing more for it to discuss until GM, the German government and U.S. Treasury had settled their differences.

Chief Executive Sergio Marchionne in a statement to the Italian Stock Exchange said he wouldn't attend negotiations on Opel in Berlin Friday.

Marchionne has been shuttling between the U.S. and Europe constantly for the past few weeks as he tries to stitch together the automotive operations of Chrysler LLC, Opel and Fiat to form one of the world's biggest car makers.

Marchionne said Fiat remains "open and committed to continue discussions with all parties involved" in the Opel deal that share a view to find "a stable and lasting solution for the industrial activities of Opel."

Fiat already had offered to contribute its auto business assets to the merger on a debt-free basis and "thus provide substantial, and absolutely necessary, equity to the merger," he added.

He said that it was "unreasonable to expect Fiat to provide funds" for Opel while the German government determines the exact timing and conditions of interim financing.

Marchionne also said that Fiat was not able to perform proper due diligence on Opel activities as it was unable to gain full access to the financial records of Opel and, therefore, was unable to make a proper merger proposal.

Fiat proposed a plan for Opel that will limit the social costs of the integration process while delivering "significant synergies" derived from the sharing of platforms, related components and power-trains, he said.

Presumably, that means that Fiat will attempt to keep job cuts to a minimum, a key consideration for the German government, which faces elections later this year.

Talks in Berlin Wednesday on the provision of state-backed bridge financing to Opel ended without agreement after GM presented a new demand for EUR300 million, which the federal government was unwilling to meet.

Austrian-Canadian Magna International Inc. (MGA) and Fiat are the two remaining bidders. Magna, seen as the front runner for a deal, has teamed up with Russian auto maker OAO GAZ Group (GAZA.RS) and state-controlled OAO Sberbank (SBER.RS).

Germany's federal government and the states of Hesse, North Rhine-Westphalia, Thuringia and Rhineland Palatinate, which are home to Opel plants, are expected to decide on the bridge financing for Opel Friday to keep it operating even if GM files for insolvency.

The interim financing of around EUR1.5 billion, which excludes the new EUR300 million demand from GM, would be from state-owned bank KfW Bankengruppe and regional banks of the states with Opel plants, according to previous statements.

 
   Company Web sites: www.fiatgroup.com; www.opel.com 
 
   -By Sabrina Cohen, Dow Jones Newswires, +39 02 58219906; sabrina.cohen@dowjones.com