The government is still aiming to meet an end-of-March deadline to name a partner for ailing national automaker Proton, the second finance minister said today.

Nor Mohamed Yakcop's comment came a week after French car giant PSA Peugeot-Citroen said it would not continue discussions that began in September with Proton over a possible tie-up.

The minister repeated his previous intention to forge a deal by the end of this month.

"We try to stick to that time frame," he was quoted as saying by the official Bernama news agency.

Analysts said last week that Proton is still likely to gain a foreign partner despite the collapse of the talks with PSA. Proton has also been in talks with US auto giant General Motors and Germany's Volkswagen AG.

"We are also receiving interest from local companies like DRB-Hicom and the Naza Group," the minister said.

"We are still discussing. We will come out with the resolution soon," he said.

Intense pressure

The government has been under intense pressure to announce details of a partnership for Proton in a bid to provide the company with expertise to arrest a sharp decline in market share.

The company last year lost its status as the country's biggest-selling automaker to rival Perodua, another homegrown manufacturer.

The government owns 59 percent of Proton which posted losses of RM281 million in the third quarter to December 2006 compared with a net profit of RM86.51 million a year earlier.

It blamed its third consecutive quarter of losses on sluggish sales and increased competition.