(STRASBOURG) - The exceptional circumstances which German automaker Opel finds itself in justify "exceptional measures", the EU's Industry Commissioner Guenter Verheugen said on Wednesday.

Opel's problems are "solely caused by the crisis situation at General Motors in the United States," the German commissioner explained during a debate in the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

"I think these are exceptional circumstances which do not apply to other European constructors and which justify consideration of exceptional measures," he added.

German car maker Opel, a division of US giant General Motors, has asked the Berlin to guarantee loans it might need if the US parent group goes bankrupt.

According to press reports Opel, which made its first car and 1899 and which GM has owned since 1929, needs up to two billion euros (2.5 billion dollars) in guarantees.

German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Monday ruled out a financial rescue package for the auto sector.

Verheugen stressed that state guarantees, not subsidies, were being sought.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel last month unveiled some measures to help the auto industry, as part of a general stimulus package, such as making new cars exempt from a tax for a certain period, and longer for low pollution models.

The measures -- and indeed the whole stimulus package with Germany now officially in recession -- have been widely criticised by economists as being too puny to give the necessary boost.

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