(Wraps earlier stories, adds quote, detail, background)
BERLIN, June 25 (Reuters) - Leaders of German engineering union IG Metall and employers are to meet on Thursday to try to end a strike by eastern German metal workers demanding a shorter working week, IG Metall head Klaus Zwickel said on Wednesday,
"There will be a meeting on Thursday in which (the head of Gesamtmetall employer organisation Martin) Kannegiesser and I will be present," Zwickel told journalists in Berlin.
An employer source had told Reuters earlier that leaders of both parties would meet later on Wednesday to assess the current situation and to prepare talks between union and employers scheduled for Friday.
Employers and IG Metall will resume negotiations on Friday to seek to end a strike for a reduction in the working week to 35 hours from 38 hours in the formerly communist eastern Germany which has caused disruptions across the country.
Even though only about 9,400 eastern German workers were on strike on Tuesday, about 10,000 western German workers in major car factories were idled by the strike, as the lack of key supplies from eastern plants hampered production in the west.
The strike forced a halt to production on Monday at BMW's Munich factory, where it builds 800 of its 3-Series cars per day and in Regensburg, where it makes 850 of the mid-sized cars.
Following an announcement by IG Metall that the strike would be halted at the car parts supplier ZF Friedrichshafen, BMW AG in Munich said it expected to re-start production of its key 3-series model on Monday.