BERLIN, Feb. 28 (Xinhua) -- The German government is ready to bail out Opel, the European arm of U.S. carmaker General Motors, with up to 5 billion euros (6.3 billion U.S. dollars), local media reported Saturday.

    The government is prepared to take a temporary stake of no more than 20 percent, the Leipziger Volkszeitung newspaper reported, quoting sources close to the government.

    GM Europe President Carl-Peter Forster said Friday that Opel needed 3.3 billion euros (4.2 billion dollars) in aid to survive the crisis.

    On Friday, Forster presented his supervisory board with an Opel rescue plan which will be forwarded to German authorities on Monday.

    The plan includes 3 billion euros from GM itself along with some 1 billion euros in cost savings. Opel will repay all its state aid by 2015, according to the plan.

    Some 8,000 jobs are at risk at Opel as its parent GM reported last week a fourth-quarter loss of 9.6 billion U.S. dollars due to sharp decline in global demand.