White House team meets GM to speed restructuring

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House task force charged with retooling the U.S. auto industry is meeting with General Motors officials to accelerate its restructuring process, an administration official said on Wednesday.

The meeting comes after President Barack Obama's administration last week gave GM 60 days to develop a more sweeping restructuring plan and ousted its then-chief executive, Rick Wagoner.

"The goal is to accelerate the process that the President laid out last Monday," the official said of the task force's meeting with GM.

"They will be in Detroit through the end of the week and will be returning next week as well."

The beleaguered auto giant, which has operated on $13.4 billion in government loans since the start of the year, was in "earnest" preparations for a possible bankruptcy, one source said this week.

The White House official said a group of 15 arrived in Detroit on Wednesday to "continue the process of business diligence with GM's new team."

The White House's team included an official from the Treasury Department, Harry Wilson, and experts from the Boston Consulting Group and Rothschild.

A GM spokesman indicated the meeting was not unusual.

"They've been working together with us since the taskforce was created," Kerry Christopher said.