If there are no 11th-hour glitches, the signing will take place on Sunday afternoon when a press conference is scheduled or on Monday, a Volvo spokesman told AFP.

"A press conference has been scheduled for Sunday afternoon with officials from Ford and Geely but this does not mean that it will be signed on Sunday, it could be Monday," Per-Aake Froeberg said Saturday.

The deal will be signed by Ford's chief financial officer Lewis Booth and Geely chairman Li Shufu at Volvo's headquarters in Torslanda in the country's south.

Volvo unions had earlier voiced opposition to the deal on grounds that it was vague on expansion plans and possible layoffs.

Three Volvo unions this week pressed for details "on the capital that will finance Volvo's daily activities, investment on future projects and the production target of 600,000 vehicles by 2015."

But on Saturday they pronounced themselves satisfied.

"We have received all the information that we were looking for," Glenn Magnusson, head of the Ledarnas union, told Sweden's TT news agency after two meetings with US-based Ford and Geely management in Gothenburg on Saturday.

"As far as the unions are concerned, we are in favour of the agreement."

Magnusson did not provide details on the talks with management, saying he and his colleagues from other unions had signed a confidentiality agreement.

Asked whether the Chinese company had given a guarantee that jobs would remain in Sweden, Magnusson said, "we have obtained a response to our questions."

Volvo has 22,000 employees worldwide, including 16,000 in Sweden.

Ford Motor Company announced in December that it had agreed on the main terms of the sale of its loss-making Swedish subsidiary Volvo Cars to Geely, one of China's largest private automakers, for a reported two billion dollars.

If completed, the deal will bring to an end Ford's decade-long association with the premium Swedish brand, known for its sturdy, family-friendly cars.

Ford had said it anticipated "a definitive sale agreement will be signed in the first quarter of 2010, subject to appropriate regulatory approvals".

Geely reportedly secured the financing needed for the purchase earlier this month, which the Financial Times valued at about 1.8 billion dollars.

The newspaper said more than a billion would be loaned by the European Investment Bank and the Swedish and Belgian governments.

The Swedish media had questioned the ability of Geely, a relatively young player, to finance the takeover.

The deal was a "leap in the dark," said the Dagens Nyheter newspaper, the day after the accord was announced.

But Svenska Dagbladet said Saturday that Geely's chairman had given guarantees that all research and development activities would remain in Sweden and that production would first be assured by plants in Sweden.

Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping is due in Sweden this weekend but according to the Volvo spokesman, there are no plans for him at the moment to visit the company headquarters.

Geely boss Li earlier told China's Xinhua news agency that the Volvo bid was related to a "new energy powered vehicle," which he described as "the future of the world's auto industry.

If the deal succeeds, nothing will change for Volvo, except the boss turns to Li Shufu," Li said. "Volvo and Geely will be two independently-managed brands."

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