Stuttgart - Sports-car manufacturer Porsche SE said Wednesday that it has received a new credit line of 10 billion euros (13.6 billion dollars) to buy up shares of fellow German carmaker Volkwagen AG.

The loan agreement would also allow Stuttgart-based Porsche to expand the loan to 12.5 billion euros over the coming weeks, it said.

The agreement extended a credit line that expires this month that Porsche has been using to buy Volkswagen shares. It wants to expand its current 50.76-per-cent share of Volkswagen, Europe's largest carmaker, to 75 per cent this year.

The approval of the new line of credit had been delayed because of the "extremely difficult world economic environment and turbulence in the credit markets," Porsche said.

The lending banks had imposed additional reviews before approving the loan, Porsche added.

Fifteen banks are providing the credit: Barclays Capital, Commerzbank AG, Landesbank Baden-Wuerttemberg, Deutsche Bank AG, UBS AG, Credit Suisse Group AG, Banco Santander SA, Bayerische Landesbank, BNP Paribas SA, Calyon, UniCredit SpA/HVB Group, Helaba, Intesa Sanpaolo SpA, WestLB AG and DZ-Bank AG. (dpa)