MAN is Europe's third-largest truck firm

The comments of VW, which has shares in both truckmakers, came after MAN offered to drop its hostile 9.6bn euros ($12.2bn; �6.5bn) bid for Scania.

MAN said it was prepared to end the bid in return for amicable talks with Sweden's Scania, which has already rejected the German firm's offer.

VW said a merger between MAN and Scania should have a lot of synergies.

Quick solution

"The main priority - and this is in Volkswagen's interest as well as in the interest of the shareholders of MAN and Scania - is that we find a quick solution as to how to create those synergies and as to how to create shareholder value," said VW chief executive Bernd Pischetsrieder.

"A lot of the potential synergies require the support of the whole management team and I'm just by experience concerned that if we find only a solution which is perceived to be hostile from either side then we will lose a lot of time by implementing those synergies."

VW has already indicated that it would consider integrating its own Brazilian truck business into a three-way partnership with MAN and Scania.

With a 18.7% stake in Scania, VW confirmed last week that it is to buy a 15% share in MAN.