MADRID,Spain - German carmaker Volkswagen has decided to site production of Audi's new Q3 SUVat at the Barcelona factory of its Spanish unit Seat, a Spanish union official told state radio on Tuesday.

"From tomorrow it will be officially ratified," Matias Carnero from Spain's UGT union told state radio.

"From there the next thing to do is to begin laying the foundations for the buildings needed to make the model as soon as possible."

State radio said between 80,000 and 100,000 Q3 cars would be made each year from 2011, safeguarding 1,500 jobs.

The news leaked out via the company's internal intranet website, Carnero said.

A spokesman at Audi's headquarters in Ingolstadt, near Munich, declined to comment on the report but added: "In the coming days there will be a statement".

A union source told Reuters last month that Seat workers at the Martorell plant in Barcelona accepted a two-year pay freeze to secure production of the Q3 - the German firm's new 4X4 sports utility vehicle (SUV).

Spain's industry ministry also declined to comment on the report.

Seat has been a chronic underperformer for the Volkswagen group, with a dangerous overreliance on its domestic Spanish market, where new car sales have dropped sharply. -Reuters