UPDATE 3-GM chairman urges changes to pay caps

* GM chairman says pay restrictions could hurt automaker

* Whitacre says changed conditions prompted Opel decision

* CEO has board support, understands mandate -- Whitacre

* Whitacre says too early to set IPO timing (Adds quote on IPO, recasts first paragraph)

By Jim Forsyth

SEGUIN, Texas, Nov 10 (Reuters) - General Motors Co [GM.UL] Chairman Ed Whitacre on Tuesday urged the Obama administration to give the automaker less restrictive pay caps and said it was too early to discuss the timing for the automaker to become a public company again.

Ed Whitacre, who became chairman of a reconstituted 13-member GM board when the automaker emerged from bankruptcy in July, also defended the decision earlier this month for GM to keep its European Opel and Vauxhall brands.

"It's been a confusing decision, but I don't think it was handled badly," Whitacre told reporters. "The circumstances changed from the time this started. The financial part of the business got better. Conditions have changed."

Whitacre said GM Chief Executive Fritz Henderson and his team have the backing of the board and an understanding of the priority of paying down government debt after the company took $50 billion in U.S. government funding.

"Mr. Henderson and his team have the support of the board," Whitacre told reporters. "They understand -- we all understand -- what we have to do."

Whitacre said it was too early to set the timing for a public offering of GM stock. "It depends on how quickly we become profitable," Whitacre said. "I think we can see that on the horizon, but I can't promise a date."

Whitacre's view represented a more cautious take on the timing of an IPO than Henderson and other GM executives who have floated the prospect of a listing of the restructured automaker as soon as the second half of 2010.

The comments by Whitacre, which came at an appearance at Texas Lutheran University, were the most detailed he has made since becoming GM chairman in July.

Whitacre, who arrived in a red Camaro, said GM would face difficulties in hiring senior executives under pay caps set by the Obama administration.

One of the first tests of that policy has been GM's search for a new chief financial officer. GM's financial management was criticized by the Obama administration's autos task force headed by former investment banker Steve Rattner.

In early September the GM board endorsed plans for Chief Financial Officer Ray Young to step aside, people familiar with the deliberations have said, but search for a replacement and an announcement on Young's next move have stalled since then.