CHICAGO, Oct. 29 (Xinhua) -- A top White House economic adviser Thursday defended the government's 80 billion-U.S.-dollar bailout of the auto industry and its plan to inject more capital into the General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC), a U.S. bank that was previously the wholly owned financial services arm of General Motors.

    Christina Romer, chair of the Obama administration's Council of Economic Advisers, said the investments which include 62 billion dollars in aid for General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC have been critical.

    "The auto investments have been important for turning around an industry where a lot of jobs were at stake," reports reaching here quoted Romer as saying during a roundtable meeting with reporters sponsored by the Christian Science Monitor newspaper.

    She also said the U.S. Treasury Department's plan to invest up to 5.6 billion dollars in GMAC had been in the works since May.

    The Detroit News paper reported this week that an agreement on additional aid, tentatively around 4 billion dollars, is expected to be finalized by next week between the Treasury Department and the Detroit-based GMAC to GM and Chrysler.

    GMAC has to date received 12.5 billion in government capital. The government owns 35.4 percent of GMAC and appointed two of the company's directors.

Special Report:  Global Financial Crisis