By Kerry Sheridan
Agence France-Presse

WASHINGTON — Faced with the looming threat of bankruptcy, US automakers fretted Monday while White House officials studied the sputtering companies’ finances but reported no moves toward a bailout.

President George W. Bush, who has hinted the government could tap a massive federal rescue package to aid the automakers, said on the way from Iraq to Afghanistan that an agreement on how to remedy the carmakers’ plight was not imminent.

“We’re now in the process of working through with the stakeholders a way forward, and we’re not quite ready to announce that yet,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. But he added that “this will not be a long process because of the economic — the fragility of the autos.”

The president’s remarks came as lawmakers warned that time was running out for the auto giants, and traded blame with auto union chiefs over the collapse last week in the Senate of a short-term rescue bill.

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By Agence France-Presse

TOKYO, Japan — Countries face massive job losses unless they move quickly to provide financial assistance to their carmakers, Renault-Nissan head Carlos Ghosn warned Monday.

“Job destruction will be massive in those countries that do not rapidly help the auto sector to finance itself,” said Ghosn, who turned Nissan around a decade ago.

“It will not be seen immediately, but in a few years,” he told a symposium in Japan.

The global slowdown has badly shaken Japan’s automakers, which in recent years have cashed in on worldwide demand for their cars.

Fears are also mounting of a collapse of the Big Three US automakers, which are pleading for urgent government aid.