CRISIS IN THE PERSIAN GULF : GM to Lay Off 4,200 Due to Mideast Strife : Economy: The auto maker’s Ypsilanti, Mich., plant will be closed for only two weeks.

General Motors will temporarily close its Ypsilanti, Mich., plant Monday and lay off the facility’s 4,200 workers because Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait has prompted many customers in the Middle East to cancel orders of GM vehicles.

Kuwait and neighboring countries have been one of largest overseas markets for North American-made GM cars and trucks. Luxury cars such as Cadillacs and large sedans at the more expensive end of the mid-priced GM lines have been particularly popular in the Middle East.

One of the most popular GM sedans in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia--the Chevrolet Caprice--has been produced at the Ypsilanti plant since last December. Buick station wagons are also built there.

The Caprice is “a full-size car that the Saudis and Kuwaitis have preferred for many years,” John Pekarek, a GM spokesman, said. “It handles well; it’s heavy and it has a luxury feel. It’s considered a good value . . . at a cost of $18,000 to $20,000.”

Pekarek said GM sold 40,000 vehicles in the Middle East last year--10,000 of them at its two dealerships in Kuwait. Before the Iraqi invasion, he added, GM had expected the sales volume for the region to remain steady or rise.

GM announced Friday that it had decided to close the Ypsilanti plant for two weeks and lay off its workers after the regional sales office in the Middle East--located in the United Arab Emirates--canceled orders equal to about two weeks of production at Ypsilanti, Pekarek said. GM sources said the plant had been scheduled to produce about 12,000 vehicles during the two-week period.

The regional sales office accepts purchase orders from a dozen dealerships in the Middle East--including two in Kuwait--and relays them to Detroit, Pekarek said. The sales office canceled the orders because the Iraqi invasion prompted consumers throughout the region to cancel or delay major purchases.

“There’s no way we can get vehicles to Kuwait,” Pekarek said. “Dealerships in the other countries are still open, but sale orders are taking a hit.”

To meet pre-invasion demand in the region, GM had planned to build an assembly plant in Iraq and had signed an agreement with the Iraqi government last May. However, the company suspended plans to build the plant after Iraq moved into Kuwait, Pekarek said.

The Iraqi government has not allowed four GM employees--one American, two Canadians and a Briton--assigned to oversee construction of the plant to leave Baghdad, Pekarek said.

Separately, several other GM assembly plants were forced to close Friday because of a 3-day-old walkout by about 3,200 workers at a GM parts plant in Flint, Mich. The striking workers produce fuel tanks, engine valves, doors and grills.

Company spokesman Tom Pyden said pickup truck plants in Pontiac, Mich., and Shreveport, La., were closed because of a resulting parts shortage, idling a total 4,400 workers and raising the total of those laid off because of parts shortages to nearly 8,000. Other plants where workers have been idled are in Flint and Moraine, Ohio.

GM is expected to close several more assembly operations by Monday if it is unable to resolve disputes with the United Auto Workers union and its Local 659 over health, safety and subcontracting issues at the Flint plant.