FRANKFURT, Dec 1 (Reuters) - The chief executive of German industrial group MAN <MANG.DE> reiterated in a magazine interview he was in no rush to push through a merger of MAN's trucks business with that of Swedish rival Scania <SCVb.ST>.

"We have to have patience. Our priorities have shifted a little because there is surprisingly strong demand for our products. We have to first concern ourselves with our capacities and our organic growth," Hakan Samuelsson told WirtschaftsWoche.

Samuelsson has been backing away from previous calls for clarity in the situation to emerge by the end of the year.

"We have just opened new plants in India and Poland. This capacity build-out is our number-one issue. With regard to the possible merger, in contrast, we feel no time pressure," he said in remarks released on Saturday ahead of publication on Monday.

The largest shareholder of both firms, Volkswagen <VOWG.DE>, has been trying to broker a friendly deal -- after MAN withdrew a hostile, 10 billion-euro ($14.8 billion) bid at the start of 2007 -- and could throw its own trucks unit into the mix.

Samuelsson said: "You can assume that VW and MAN's positions are similar," without elaborating.

Samuelsson added that MAN was not feeling any effects from a global credit crisis stemming from subprime home loans in the United States. "We don't feel any of that yet," he said.

"Our customers are still ordering ship diesel engines, turbo machines and trucks at a high level."

He said MAN had no plans to make any acquisitions in the United States, where MAN has little presence, and pointed out that profits were generally lower there.

"I would rule that out for the moment. In the USA there are completely different vehicles and market rules. We want to make progress now in eastern Europe, then in Russia, India and China," he said. (Reporting by Georgina Prodhan; editing by Tony Austin)

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Keywords: MAN SCANIA/