German prosecutors identified US automotive supplier Lear yesterday as one of the companies under investigation for suspected bribery of German carmakers to win business.

"We are investigating Lear as well in connection with possible bribe payments in the auto industry," Munich prosecutor Anton Winkler said, confirming a report in the Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper.

A call to Lear's headquarters in Southfield, Michigan seeking comment was not immediately returned. Munich prosecutors are checking whether Lear had paid a six-digit dollar sum to a former BMW purchasing manager to get a contract from the premium carmaker, Mr Winkler said. The former BMW manager is in investigative custody.

A BMW spokesman said last week that the manager in question and another suspect in the case had long ago stopped working for the company.

Mr Winkler said prosecutors had searched Lear offices in Germany last November as part of the probe.

Frankfurt prosecutors said last Friday they were investigating Pierre Levi, the chief executive of French car parts company Faurecia, on suspicion he abetted corruption by covering up bribes his company paid to carmakers.

Prosecutor Sybille Gottwald said Mr Levi had acknowledged that he knew since 2001 of bribes paid by the world's biggest maker of car instrument panels and doors to win contracts.

Faurecia has not commented on the matter.

Prosecutors have said around 20 people were under investigation at 10 suppliers and an unspecified number of carmakers.

The investigation has focused on payments worth up to €800,000 a year to officials at carmakers including Volkswagen, its premium auto arm Audi, and BMW.

Mr Levi (51) told reporters in Paris last week: "We are co-operating and we hope that there will be clarity but until the end of the probe I cannot comment."