Senate banking chief confident on auto bailout

DUBLIN (Reuters) - Senate Banking Committee chairman Chris Dodd said on Monday he was confident the U.S. government would help U.S. auto makers with bridging loans to survive the financial crisis.

He said it was possible the government would use the so-called TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) fund to bail out the main U.S. car manufacturers.

"These companies are burning through cash at an incredible rate," he said.

"What the loans do is to allow them to survive basically into the first quarter, particularly in the case of GM (GM.N) and to some degree Chrysler LLC as well," he told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dublin.

"Ford (F.N) is in fairly good shape in the short term," he said.

U.S. President George W. Bush said earlier on Monday an announcement on a auto industry rescue was not imminent. A Treasury Department spokeswoman said department officials were reviewing information from the auto industry and no decisions had been made yet about a rescue plan.

"To me it's very critical the administration step up," Dodd said.

"I'm confident the administration will step in and provide these bridge loans, and then it's important during the period between now and the end of March that restructuring commitments be made so the companies can move forward," Dodd added.

Bush said last week his administration would consider using part of the Treasury's $700 billion bailout package for financial institutions to keep U.S. automakers afloat over the short term as they sought lasting solutions.

The industry has been hard hit by slumping sales as the economy has tipped into what is now a year-old recession.

"We've worked so hard to try and come up with a bridge loan that would allow us the 90 days to try and restructure the automobile industry in such a way that they might survive, might survive," Dodd said.

(Reporting by Andras Gergely; Writing by David Cowell, editing by Will Waterman)