The struggling car maker said it will speak to the 1,500 workers at its factory in Luton, 35 miles (57 kilometers) north of London about the cuts.

"The GM manufacturing facility in Luton has now begun its own period of consultation between unions and local GM management," GM said in a statement released late Monday.

GM said the number of layoffs at the plant that builds vans for Opel, Vauxhall, Nissan and Renault _ including the Opel Vivaro and Renault Trafic _ was subject to "further local consultation."

Last week, GM said it expected to increase the number of shifts to three from two, starting in 2011, at its Vauxhall plant in Ellesmere Port, England, and doesn't expect job cuts there.

GM shocked European governments and employees earlier this month by abruptly canceling the planned sale of a majority in Opel to a consortium of Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. and Russian lender Sberbank.

Opel and Vauxhall employ some 48,000 people in Europe, about half of them in Germany. GM has said it needs ⁈llion ($4.9 billion) to restructure its European operations, some of which it hopes to get from governments. The company has said it could face about 9,000 job cuts Europe-wide as it attempts to reduce output by about 20 percent. The company's top European official said a plan for Opel to be unveiled next month will include a schedule to launch new models and a break-even target.

In a separate announcement Monday, Germany's Economy Ministry said that a trust set up earlier this year to keep Opel and Vauxhall out of GM's filing for bankruptcy protection has been dissolved.

Sixty-five percent of Opel had been formally under the care of the trust since the beginning of June, with GM holding the remaining 35 percent. The trust's holding has now returned to GM.

GM's repayment of a ⁈llion German government bridge loan, granted earlier this year to keep Opel afloat, cleared the way for the trust to be shut down.

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