Actually the other people is foolish enough for not understand the complexity of politic bickerings betweeen the Cabinet ministers. At one time, it was announced VW had secured the deal, the other camp did not agree to that (e currernt administration who have interest in Naza) then Pak Lah with no balls can't make a decision and tried to condescend to both camps. If proton doesn't hold value much, why the f*** foreign marques showed intrest in the first place. Miss TDM, at least he could force them to reach final consensus with a bit of less freedom, a price to pay to get things done fast.

KUALA LUMPUR (XFN-ASIA) - Officials from both Khazanah Nasional Bhd and the government will meet with representatives from Volkswagen AG next week regarding the possible strategic alliance

between the German carmaker and Proton, the Edge Weekly reported.

On Friday, Khazanah managing director Azman Mokhtar said Proton is still in talks with Volkswagen and a meeting will be set up soon between Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi and Volkswagen officials.

An official with the Prime Minister's Office also confirmed that Volkswagen had requested a final round of talks with Abdullah.

This follows Abdullah's earlier statement that Volkswagen is not interested in a proposal raised by Proton, which involves an equity participation arrangement.

Citing unnamed sources, the business weekly said there are factions with their own interests who have been trying to influence the decision-making process.

The Prime Minister may have been misinformed about the status of negotiations, according to the report.

Separately, the Edge Financial Daily reported that Proton had invited Malaysian Airline System Bhd's managing director Idris to share his experience in MAS' turnaround to the ailing carmaker's senior executives two weeks ago.

However, the newspaper said that Idris has not become a consultant to Proton.

"It is one government-linked company sharing its formula with another," the paper quoted a source as saying.