Japan's Mitsubishi Motors is willing to sell its Netherlands factory "for one euro" if the buyer is prepared to keep employing the 1,500 workers there, the company president has said.

"If the payroll of about 1,500 factory workers can be maintained, we may as well sell the assets for one euro," Osamu Masuko said late Monday, according to a company spokesman.

Japan's fourth largest automaker said Monday it would stop making cars at the plant in Born by the end of 2012, effectively ending its sole European manufacturing operation.

Mitsubishi blamed a difficult operating environment in the debt-hit continent, but Dutch Economics Minister Maxime Verhagen told a radio station the decision was "an unbelievable blow."

Dutch trade unions called the plan "a disaster" for the southern Netherlands, which they said was already hit hard by unemployment.

Mitsubishi produces the Colt subcompact and the Outlander sports utility models at the wholly-owned unit, which used to be a joint venture with Sweden's Volvo.