Merkel pressured to choose Magna

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be pressed to choose Magna International Inc as the buyer of General Motors Corp's Opel division, even after the minister leading efforts to rescue the unit said all bids came up short.

Merkel will host talks today in Berlin as bidding reaches what she called a "kind of climax". Unions, Merkel's coalition partners and politicians from her own party urged her to opt for Canadian auto-parts supplier Magna over Italy's Fiat SpA and a third suitor, RHJ International SA.

It's an election year and Magna may preserve more of Opel's 25,000 German jobs.