A Rare Moment For Me

I would like to take the opportunity to say thank you to President George W. Bush

The US government has said it will provide $17.4bn (£11.6bn) in loans to help troubled carmakers General Motors and Chrysler to survive.

President George W Bush said allowing the US car industry to fail would not be "a responsible course of action".

Ford has said it hoped to get by without government help.

The government will use part of the $700bn originally pledged to rescue US banks. It has set a deadline of 31 March for the firms to become viable.

General Motors will get $9.4 billion and Chrysler $4 billion before the end of the year. A further $4bn will be provided later.

GM chief executive Rick Wagoner said his company would quickly start to restructure itself.

"Our focus now turns to fully and rapidly implementing the restructuring plan that we reviewed with Congress earlier this month in conjunction with all of our key partners," he told a news conference.