General?Motors Corp, the biggest overseas auto maker in China, is in talks with a local partner to increase its stake in a venture that produces vans and light trucks under the Wuling brand.

The United States auto maker is seeking to buy additional shares in SAIC-GM-Wuling Automobile Co, Hu Maoyuan, chairman of SAIC Motor Corp, told Bloomberg News in Tianjin on Saturday.

SAIC is the majority shareholder of the venture with 50.1 percent, GM owns 34 percent and Liuzhou Wuling Motors Co. holds the rest.

GM is seeking to boost market share in the world's fastest-growing major economy, where the venture based in the southern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region accounts for about half its local sales. GM has said it may not have enough cash to keep operating this year.

(Shanghai Daily November 10, 2008)