Volkswagen AG Management Board Member Francisco Sanz said recently that the German auto maker aims to regain leadership in the Chinese automotive sales market by 2008 after losing its No. 1 spot to General Motors Corp. (GM) earlier this year.

Volkswagen, which had been the longtime leader in China until 2006, has seen its share of the global passenger car market slide in recent years due to a surge by big international competitors based in Asia. In China, Volkswagen sales rose in the first half of 2006, but the German auto maker's growth rate of about 30% during the period was outpaced by a nearly 50% increase at GM.

Sanz, speaking to Dow Jones Newswires on the sidelines of the International Iron and Steel Institute annual meeting, said the company has plans to wrestle sales leadership away from GM by 2008. The China leadership goal is part of an Olympic restructuring program that has been designed to reinvigorate its business in one of the world's most promising and challenging markets.

Sanz leads Volkswagen's procurement efforts and is part of the company's six-member management board.

"Clearly we still want to be No. 1," he said, regarding the company's desire to once again lead in China. "We have to do what everybody does in the business - which is cut costs, make more attractive models and improve quality."

GM and its joint ventures sold 453,832 vehicles in the China market between January and June, up 47% from first-half 2005, according to the Xinhua News Agency. GM entered the Chinese market in 1999, and has surged to the top of the pack there thanks to an aggressive acquisition, production-expansion and vehicle-launch strategy.

Sales at Volkswagen totaled 345,375 vehicles during the period.

Volkswagen's China plan, called the Olympic Program because it is meant to end in 2008 when China hosts the Olympic Games, relies on the close cooperation of VW's Chinese partners in purchasing efforts and other initiatives. It also calls for the release of as many as 12 new models for the country.