P.M. BRIEFING : GM Suspends Role in Project to Assemble Cars in Baghdad

General Motors Corp. today suspended participation in a project to build a vehicle assembly plant near Baghdad that was slated to produce Oldsmobile cars and Chevrolet trucks by as early as next year.

GM did not have any financial participation in the assembly plant project, for which no ground has been broken yet. Instead, the Iraqi State Enterprise for Automotive Industry had agreed in May, 1989, to pay GM for technical support and a license to build Oldsmobile Ciera cars and Chevrolet S-10 pickup trucks and Blazer sport utility vehicles.

The agreement was unique because it is one of the few instances in which North American-designed vehicles would be built overseas, GM spokesman Jack Harned said.

GM has also during the last two years sold about 15,000 North American-made cars to Iraq under a deal valued at about $200 million.