The Department of Trade and Industry tried to dis-courage plans for reviving car production at the former MG Rover factory at Longbridge, according to the site's new owner.

Bosses of Nanjing Automobile, the Chinese company which aims to start building MG cars next year, has attacked the Government for failing to back its plans.

It has said nothing publicly but The Birmingham Post has learned that behind the scenes the company is "astonished" at what it regards as a negative attitude on the part of the DTI.

Protocol prevents any state-owned Chinese firm from openly criticising the government of a country in which it is investing.

But industry sources say Nanjing executives are privately furious about what they interpret as a lack of support for the biggest-ever Chinese investment in Britain and one that could create up to 1,000 jobs.

Nanjing's attitude to the DTI has emerged from a leaked letter sent to the Transport and General Workers Union in September last year - two months after the company bought MG Rover assets out of administration for #53 million.

The company claimed the DTI had been at pains to stress that no grant aid would be available apart from training subsidies.

In a meeting with Nanjing, the letter states, that DTI officials "went to great lengths to point out the over-capacity of car manufacturing in Europe".

It says: "The DTI also explained that unlike other countries around the world, the UK had no strategy for the automotive industry and relied totally on the dynamics of the free market.

"The information given by the DTI left us with the impression that they believed we should choose to give up our plan of both investment in the UK and the recommencement of production."

At the time Nanjing wrote the letter, the TGWU was among those question-ing the viability of the c ompany's plans for Longbridge.

Nanjing officials are also believed to have been shocked when Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson described their Longbridge plans as a "a soap opera".

They regard his comments as disrespectful and showing a lack of under-standing of the Chinese way of doing business.

They were also surprised that the DTI did not attend a recent conference when Nanjing announced the signing of a 33-year lease for the Longbridge site.

A source close to Nanjing said: "That announcement was universally welcomed by everyone with the exception of the DTI whose silence was deafening.

"They can't believe that the Government department responsible for encouraging inward investment and industrial growth and entrepreneur-ship should be behaving so negatively as to be obstructive."

Automotive industry insiders say Nanjing's comments echo earlier criticisms.

A DTI spokesman said: "We have met with Nanjing on numerous occasions and have made it clear to them that we would assist them as any inward investor."