British Prime Minister Gordon Brown said on Monday that he is confident that many jobs at British carmaker Vauxhall can be saved after its parent company General Motors Corp (GM) filed for bankruptcy protection.

"We are determined to save as many of the Vauxhall jobs as possible," Brown told Sky News in an interview. "We are confident that we can save a large number of jobs."

"We believe that they are viable ... we have got a very strong case to (put to) potential new owners about the importance of the British operations," he said.

More than 4,700 GM jobs are under threat at Vauxhall's factories in Ellesmere Port, northwest England, and Luton, north of London, after GM filing for bankruptcy protection, the third largest bankruptcy in US history.

Brown said that he and Business Secretary Peter Mandelson were working hard to avoid job losses at Vauxhall's two UK plants.

General Motors Corp. filed for bankruptcy on Monday, forcing the 100-year-old automaker once seen as a symbol of American economic might into a new and uncertain era of government ownership. The bankruptcy filing is also the largest ever in US manufacturing.

However, a deal was struck on last Saturday between GM, the US government and Canadian auto parts group Magna to save GM's European unit including Vauxhall.

British Business Secretary Lord Mandelson is preparing to meet the new owners of Vauxhall within days to "nail down" how many British jobs will be protected and over what period they will be guaranteed, according to a report by The Times on Monday.

(Xinhua News Agency June 2, 2009)