German Economics Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Wednesday he expects carmaker Adam Opel GmbH, a unit of General Motors Corp. (GM), to present a restructuring plan this week.

"We firmly believe we will get it this week," zu Guttenberg told reporters. He added that the government would then evaluate it before making its decision. He declined to comment how possible aid would look like.

Armin Schild, a supervisory board member at Opel, told Dow Jones Newswires Friday that the company needs at least EUR3.3 billion in capital to survive and become less dependent on GM.

Help for Opel might come in the form of a credit or liquidity guarantees while some politicians also suggested taking a stake in the carmaker.

The collapse of struggling Opel could cost German taxpayers up to EUR3 billion and it would be better to rescue it instead, German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said Sunday.

The government recently set up a EUR100 billion fund to provide liquidity guarantees and loans to help companies struggling with tight credit conditions. But this doesn't include plans for the government to take direct stakes in such companies.

-By Andrea Thomas, Dow Jones Newswires; +49-30-288-8410; andrea.thomas@dowjones.com

(Christoph Rauwald contributed to this report.)