By Rob Lever

WASHINGTON, US, March 29, 2009 (AFP) - US President Barack Obama has asked the head of General Motors to resign, US media reported Sunday, a day before the US leader spells out his plan for the future of the crippled auto sector.

'The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed,' Politico.com reported, citing an unnamed White House official.

As Obama prepared to announce his new plan at 11:00 am (1500 GMT) on Monday, he made it clear he felt General Motors and Chrysler had not yet done enough to restructure their companies and earn billions more bailout dollars.

'They're not there yet,' Obama told CBS television Sunday.

'We think we can have a successful US auto industry. But it's got to be one that's realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge at the other end much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is.'

Both companies have warned they are teetering on the edge of bankruptcy and cannot survive without another 21.6 billion dollars in government loans.

An Obama task force has been working to resolve the woes of the auto industry, a key pillar of the US economy that has been hit hard by plunging global cars sales amid the economic downturn. And one plank of the reform would appear to be the resignation of GM chief Wagoner, according to US media reports Sunday.

GM spokeswoman Katie McBride refused to confirm or deny the reports, telling AFP: 'I don't think it's appropriate to comment on any of the speculation ... until after the White House has made its announcement.'

General Motors and Chrysler have asked for another 21.6 billion dollars in US aid on top of the 17.4 billion in emergency loans approved in December as they struggle to survive.

Ford, the other member of Detroit's Big Three, has said it has enough cash to survive the downturn without government aid.

GM and Chrysler must come up with viability plans to show the path to profitability, requiring deeper job cuts, new agreements with unions to slash costs and acceptance by bondholders of a plan to cut the automakers' debt.

'There's been some serious efforts to deal with a combination of long-standing problems in the auto industry and the current crisis, which has seen, you know, the market for new cars drop from 14 million to nine million,' Obama said Sunday.

But he added that to ride out the crisis there had to be 'sacrifices from all parties involved, management, labor, shareholders, creditors, suppliers, dealers.

'Everybody's going to have to come to the table and say it's important for us to take serious restructuring steps now in order to preserve a brighter future down the road,' the president said.

Obama task force lead advisor Steven Rattner told the Detroit Free Press this month that 'bankruptcy is not our goal,' but that court restructuring may be needed if there is no alternative.

Analysts say the administration is basically pursuing a two-track approach by offering them short-term help through the bridge loans while offering longer-term financing for new research and development.

The US administration wanted to see 'a strong automobile industry. We want it to emerge from this period of challenge stronger,' Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner stressed Sunday.

'That's going to require a lot of restructuring. We're prepared as a government to help that process if we believe it's going to provide the basis for a stronger industry in the future that's not going to rely on government support,' he told ABC.

Automakers are pledging to increase their commitment to building greener cars in return for the extra government loans.

'Additional support will help us accelerate our efforts to reinvent GM and the cars and trucks we build,' GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said in a statement.

'We want to play a significant role in revitalizing America's economy and re-establishing its technology leadership.'