Stockholm -- In a final attempt to rescue Saab Automobile AB, Dutch auto maker Spyker Cars on Sunday submitted a new offer to buy the Swedish brand from General Motors Co.

Spyker said it has submitted a new 11-point proposal to GM, addressing the issues that made talks collapse earlier this week.

GM on Friday said it would wind down Saab because issues arose during the sales talks with Spyker that could not be resolved, and the window of time to complete a deal was small.

Spyker CEO Victor R. Muller said he hoped the new offer would make GM change its mind.

"We are very confident that our renewed offer will remove the impasse that was standing in the way of an agreement on Friday, and this would still allow us to conclude the deal prior to the expiry of the deadline originally set by GM of Dec. 31," he said in a statement.

"We have made every effort to resolve the issues that were preventing the conclusion of this matter and we have asked GM and all other involved parties to seriously consider this offer," he added.

Muller said the new offer removes a demand that a loan from the European Investment Bank to Saab be approved before the end of the year, and has the full backing of Saab's management.

It said the offer expires Monday, giving GM little time to make a decision.

Later Sunday, GM said it had received "inquiries from several parties."

"We will evaluate each inquiry. We will not comment further until these evaluations have been completed," it said in a statement.

Saab employs about 3,400 people worldwide, most of them at its main plant in Trollhattan, Sweden.

Gert-Inge Andersson, leader of the local government in Trollhattan, said he did not yet dare to believe in the new offer.

"It's bordering on torture, of citizens and the employees at Saab, when messages like these fly back and forth," he told local news agency TT

Swedish government officials declined comment.

GM bought a 50 percent stake and management control of Saab for $600 million in 1989 and gained full ownership in 2000 for $125 million more.

In February, the Swedish brand went into creditor protection in an effort by GM to sell the unit. A consortium led by Swedish sports car maker Koenigsegg Automotive AB signed a preliminary deal to buy the brand in June but dropped out in November.

Sweden said a last-ditch bid by Spyker Cars for Saab offered a thread of hope the iconic brand would survive, as talks between the Dutch luxury carmaker and General Motors Co. triggered an extended deadline.

Russia-backed Spyker lodged a renewed fast-track offer to buy Saab from GM on Sunday, imposing an expiry of 5 p.m. eastern time today, but the company said it had extended the deadline.

"It is open-ended. It has been extended until further notice," Spyker Cars CEO Victor Muller said.

Spyker -- which made 43 luxury cars last year against Saab's sales of 93,295 -- made a new offer for Saab just two days after talks with GM over a rescue of the loss-making Swedish manufacturer collapsed.

Swedish Enterprise Minister Maud Olofsson earlier told a news conference the renewed approach from Spyker had offered a slim thread of hope of finding a solution for Saab.

"It is very late, there is a very tight timetable, and that means the situation is very difficult," she said after meeting with representatives of Saab and local authorities.

Spyker said on Sunday it had submitted a new offer to GM, including an 11-point proposal addressing issues that arose during the due diligence process for its old bid.

"We've had various discussions with them today," Spyker Cars CEO Victor Muller told Reuters, adding that talks were "definitely" ongoing, but there was nothing new to report.

Muller said Spyker Cars would issue a statement saying whether it would meet the deadline or not, but added the deadline was only given to gain clarity about GM's wind down scenario for Saab. He did not say whether it could be extended.

Shutdown aid

The Swedish government said it would allot 542 million Swedish crowns ($75 million) to measures, mainly for education and job plans, to help deal with the thousands of jobs set to disappear if Saab was shut down.

Abandoning the 60-year-old Swedish auto brand would eliminate 3,400 jobs in Sweden and drop 1,100 Saab dealers. General Motors raised hopes on Sunday when it said it would evaluate several new expressions of interest for Saab.

"We should be careful about fuelling new hopes in a situation where the people in Trollhattan, and at Saab and their subcontractors are thrown between hope and despair," Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt told journalists.

Swedish daily Svenska Dagbladet, citing unidentified sources, said the ownership structure backing the Spyker bid had been altered to placate worries at GM and that Russian parties were no longer involved.

"That which was considered a problem has been solved," the newspaper quoted a source as saying.

Russian banking tycoon Vladimir Antonov holds an almost 30 percent stake in Spyker Cars.

Russian state-controlled Sberbank and Canada's Magna International Inc. tried to buy a stake in GM's Opel unit until GM decided to keep it last month. Russia is keen to obtain Western technology to re-energize its local car industry.

Spyker CEO Muller said if a deal is achieved, Saab and Spyker would operate as sibling companies, where Spyker could benefit from Saab's technical resources and its distribution network, while Spyker would bring entrepreneurial skills to Saab. "The synergies are very, very clear," he said.

Spyker Cars said its new offer eliminates the need for a European Investment Bank (EIB) loan approval prior to year end, which would allow the deal to be concluded within GM's deadline of December 31, but Muller said approval of the EIB loan could still take place in 2010.

"The ball is in GM's court and I don't know how GM views this. That remains to be seen," said Paul Akerlund, local union leader at Saab's production hub in Trollhattan.

Saab Automobile spokesman Eric Geers has declined comment.