``There'll be no announcement tonight,'' GM spokesman Bill O' Neill said shortly before midnight EDT. ``They have work to do; they'll continue working tonight and they'll be back working in the morning.'' Monday, one day after talks shifted into high gear, top-level GM and UAW bargainers met among themselves and with each other at a hotel outside of Flint, occasionally in the view of reporters in the lobby below.

Negotiations were also ongoing at the Flint Metal Centre and Delphi East parts plants, which together have 9,200 UAW members on strike. The Flint Metal walkout, the longest of the two, stretched into its 54th day on Tuesday.

The strikes have cost GM more than $2 billion, analysts estimate, and idled 25 of its 29 North American assembly operations. Before two assembly operations wererestarted on Monday, the strikes forced the layoffs of almost 193,000 non-striking North American workers.

UAW vice-president Richard Shoemaker, who said early on Monday significant issues remain to be solved, declined to comment on the talks in one informal session with reporters.

UAW president Stephen Yokich also refused to discuss the bargaining.

Progress had been reported over the weekend, prompting GM to bring disputed stamping machinery back into the Flint Metal Centre. It led to speculation that a settlement was around the corner.

That speculation was fuelled again on Monday afternoon when GM chief financial officer J Michael Losh was spotted leaving the talks. A broadcast report that North American Operations president G Richard Wagoner was also present was inaccurate, O'Neill said.

However, there were signs that progress was slow at the Delphi plants involved, company and union sources said, in particular at two Dayton, Ohio, plants that produce brake systems.

GM wants a settlement ofthe Flint strikes to also address ongoing disputes at the Dayton brake operations and a stamping facility in Indianapolis, Indiana. In Dayton, for example, GM managers have said the unprofitable plants may be closed or sold if workers cannot agree to productivity improvements. UAW members at both plants have authorised their leaders to set strike deadlines if they see fit. Meantime Monday, GM restarted production at its Corvette plant in Bowling Green, Ky, and sport utility factory in Silao, Mexico, by using alternatively sourced parts. The UAW had threatened to serve the company with a notice that it would strike the Corvette plant in five days if it restarted production. GM's Gerry Holmes said the plants started without troubles and output was 100 per cent of normal.

Lehman Brothers analyst Joseph Phillippi said he would expect GM to bring more plants back into operation if the strikes continued. Phillippi said he does not expect GM to back down from its drive to increase the efficiency of itsplants.

The issue has been a key source of contention with the union, which is trying to keep its membership up and battle what it calls the company's ``America last'' strategy of not investing in domestic operations.

``I don't see GM going more than 50 per cent of the way,'' he said.

Both sides are also waiting for a ruling from independent arbitrator Thomas Roberts on GM's allegations the Flint strikes are illegal.

GM said the strikes violate its national contract with the union because the workers struck over investment and job-related issues, which are not considered ``strikeable'' under the GM-UAW national agreement. The union says the strikes are over local issues such as the health and safety of the workers in the plants.

If Roberts finds in GM's favour, the strikers could be forced back to work and the company could seek damages from the union. The arbitrator has 30 days to rule, but a decision is expected sooner. GM may drop its complaint as part of any settlement.