SOUTH Korea's Samsung Business Group has agreed to pay $180 million (£112.5 million) to take over the bankrupt Dutch Fokker NV's aircraft making division, according to reports in Seoul.

Samsung officials were not available for comment, but the Korea Times quoted industry sources as saying the deal was virtually final, with a formal announcement expected soon.

Negotiators from the group's aircraft division, Samsung Aerospace Industries, are in the Netherlands to discuss final details of the deal but on Tuesday a company spokesman declined comment on a report that the deal was final.

Fokker, the world's oldest aircraft manufacturer, was declared bankrupt on March 15th after the main shareholder, DASA, a subsidiary of the German group Daimler Benz, stopped providing financial support.

Samsung's plan to take over Fokker came after an ambitious government led project to build 100 seat Passenger aircraft was aborted by a failure to strike a deal, with China. Samsung had headed a consortium of South Korean firms for the project.