国际英语新闻：Obama administration to announce auto plan on Monday

WASHINGTON, March 27 (Xinhua) -- Obama administration will unveil a new plan on the future of the country's crippled auto industry, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said on Friday.

    "The president's autos task force is meeting today. I think they are winding down the decisions that have to be made and putting in place a plan that the president will announce on Monday," Gibbs said.

    "The president, I think, will outline what he thinks is the best way forward to achieve viability for the companies in both the short term and the longer term," the spokesman added.

    GM and Chrysler, two of U.S. "Big Three" automakers, have received a combined 17.4 billion U.S. dollars of emergency loans from the government to stave off bankruptcy.

    Struggling to survive a collapse of auto sales amid a deepening economic crisis, the two companies requested last month for an additional 21.6 billion dollars in government aid.

    The third automaker, Ford, has said that it has enough cash to survive the downturn without government aid.

    The auto industry task force was set up to review restructuring plans of GM and Chrysler and led by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and White House Economic Adviser Larry Summers.