Beijing Automotive Industry Holding Co plans to present a detailed bid for General Motors Corp's Opel unit in Europe within the next few days, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

The Chinese carmaker held discussions with GM last week and is firming up details of an offer, the paper said.

Beijing Automotive currently only makes Mercedes-Benz and Accent cars at joint ventures with Daimler AG and South Korea's Hyundai Motor <005360.KS>.

Speaking in Germany's Bild newspaper on Thursday, Klaus Franz, head of the Opel works council, was quoted as saying that GM was playing a high-stakes game in a bid to improve the terms of the Opel disposal, adding that he knew of no new offer.

That followed comments from Franz in the Wall Street Journal report, in which he expressed strong reservations about any sale to Beijing Automotive.

They only want technology and have no experience in global auto production, the paper reported Franz as saying.

General Motors has been talking to other potential buyers for Opel as it worked through snags with preferred bidder Canadian-Austrian auto parts group Magna International .

On Tuesday, a GM Europe spokesman confirmed that potential buyers for Opel include Belgium-based holding company RHJ International and Beijing Automotive.

Beijing Automotive told Reuters it had no knowledge of the matter.

(Reporting by Hezron Selvi in Bangalore and Fang Yan in Shanghai; editing by Simon Jessop)

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