During an interview with US television show Political Capital With Al Hunt, US Treasury auto adviser Steve Rattner suggested that the talks between GM and its debt holders may need an official deadline to finally reach a resolution.

It now looks like that day may soon be at hand, reports GM Inside News, with the US government expected to announce a deadline for GM and Chrysler to either have their stakeholder agreements sorted out, or to go into a government-backed Chapter 11 bankruptcy.

The two ailing manufacturers have been advised that the deadline represents a move to prod the carmakers and their debt holders into reaching an agreement, with both sides unwilling (or in the manufacturers’ case, unable) to budge on the question of transforming debt into liquidity.