General Motors is interested in acquiring a stake in Proton, GM's chief executive Richard Wagoner has said.

Wagoner told AFP late Tuesday that the world's leading automaker has been involved in discussions about the future of Proton, which has been losing market share.

"A mutual opportunity with Proton is something that has been out there," Wagoner said.

"But I have no idea where it's going. There are other people in (the discussions) that have been in longer than we are," he said. "So it's hard to say where it's going to go."

Wagoner spoke after delivering a speech at the Automotive New World Congress. He said in the speech that emerging markets would be one of the keys to GM's future success.

Germany's Volkswagen AG and France's Peugeot-Citroen Group have also been named in news reports as being interested in acquiring a stake in Proton.

The government, which owns 59 percent of Proton, said earlier this month that GM had expressed an interest in taking a stake in Proton.

Officials have said that the government will likely make a decision on a strategic partner by the end of March.

Pushing hard

"To win in today's global industry, you need to minimise and aggressively address the downs ... and drive hard on the ups," Wagoner also said in his speech. "For GM, that means we're driving aggressively right now in emerging markets ... like China, Brazil, Russia.

"Fifty-five percent of our unit sales were outside the US in 2006, and that percentage will continue to grow," Wagoner said.

"Going forward, we continue to see tremendous growth opportunities in China, India, Korea, as well as Russia, Brazil, the Middle East, the Andean region and other emerging markets," the GM chief said.

"We intend to continue pushing hard in all of them, where, on balance, we have a very strong position," he said.

Wagoner also said in his speech that the United States needs to adopt energy policies that encourage alternative energy sources.

"For the global auto industry, this means that we must - as a business necessity - develop alternative sources of propulsion based on alternative sources of energy ... in order to meet the world's growing demand for our products," he said.