The push to cut costs may see more automated production

Germany will be the hardest hit, the paper said, with 6,000 workers facing redundancy at its Adam Opel business.

The firm's European losses have reached almost $2bn over the past four years, although GM is not the only car maker struggling in the current climate.

GM releases profit data on Thursday and said it will make a major announcement.

A spokesman for the company explained that a figure for job cuts had been decided upon but declined to give more details.

He said that negotiations with unions will start after the plan has been laid out later this week and will aim to be concluded by the end of November.

Hard place to do business

Demand for new cars has been slow to recover following a slowdown in global growth, and higher gasoline costs have further dented demand.

Competition has also increased, prompting producers to offer cheaper cars or financing deals that are proving costly and increasingly eat into diminishing profits.

Earlier this year, GM centralised its European operations by merging its three European car-making businesses - Opel, Vauxhall and Saab - under a single regional chairman, based in Zurich.

That move, and earlier attempts to cut costs, have not done enough and the Financial Times reported that GM complained last month that Europe was becoming a more expensive place to do business.

The firm employs about 63,000 people in 11 factories across the UK, Belgium, Germany, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Spain, and Sweden.

A decision relating to the future of its plants in Russelsheim, near Frankfurt, and Trollhattan in Sweden will probably be taken next year, the paper reported.

GM is not the only car maker facing an increasingly competitive European market.

Ford recently announced it was shutting down production at a UK plant and Volkswagen has warned of job cuts at its German factories unless staff accept a two-year pay freeze.