DUTCH planemaker Fokker has said that none of its five potential suitors have yet made a serious offer to acquire the firm's operations, but it still had two weeks to find a buyer.

"There is no offer on the table yet," spokesman Mr Leo Steijn said after reports late on Thursday that Canadian group Bombardier was on the verge of bidding for the ailing company. Bombadier owns Shorts in Belfast, which supplies wings for Fokker planes. Due to the crisis in the Dutch company 1,500 workers have been put on protective notice at Shorts.

Dutch state credits granted to Fokker will run out by the beginning of March - a fact well understood by those interested in the firm, said Mr Steijn.

"We are still in the process of presenting information to the interested parties. The next phase would be that one or more would make an offer and then we could start negotiating final conditions," Mr Steijn said.