Chinese automaker Great Wall Motor will start assembling cars in Bulgaria in February as part of its efforts to enter the European market, its local partner Litex Motors said on Friday.

"We have planned to officially open automobile production in February ... The plant has been test-producing since mid-November and assembled the first 200 experimental cars," Litex spokesman Kiril Georgiev told the 168 Hours weekly.

"At first we plan only to assemble (cars) but we are in talks with different subcontractors to organise the production of all parts here in the next two or three years," the spokesman said.

Litex Motors and Great Wall Motor, one of China's leading sports utility vehicles maker, signed a contract in 2009 to build a plant in the village of Bahovitsa near Lovech.

The plant, with a planned annual capacity of 50,000 cars, will employ up to 2,000 people and produce Great Wall's Hover H5 SUV, the Steed 5 pick-up and the Voleex C10 city car for the European market.

The models will be the first Chinese cars assembled in Europe, 168 Hours reported.

Bulgaria has previously had a limited experience in carmaking.

Renault and Fiat assembled certain of their models here in the late 1960s. Russian Moskvich cars were also made here during communism between 1967 and 1988.

Rover had also launched an assembly line in the Black sea city of Varna in 1995 but discontinued production in 1996.