As CEOs of the big three Detroit car makers return to Capitol Hill today for two days of Congressional hearings, General Motors and Chrysler are contemplating accepting a pre-arranged bankruptcy as a last resort for getting $18 billion and $7 billion in aid from the government.

Bloomberg reported citing inside sources that the two companies have asked restructuring experts for opinons on whether they were in a position to negotiate with workers, creditors and lenders, by filing for bankruptcy protection without going in for liquidation.

The CEO of GM, Rick Wagoner has often said that bankruptcy and liquidation was not an option as customers would not buy cars from a company, which is winding up.

Bloomberg reported that company officials, lenders, union officials and other interested parties are looking at "all solutions" to the financial problems faced by the two companies.

Meanwhile as the hearings go on at Capitol Hill, the United Automobile Workers union, in an about turn, has changed its previous rigid stance and said it was lending support for the $34-billion aid by making major concessions in its contracts, which according to the union could ultimately tilt the balance in favour of a bailout.

After presenting their restructuring plans justifying their appeal for as much as $34 billion instead of the $25 billion they originally wanted, UAW president Ron Gettelfinger said his union is committed to pushing for aid and announced that the union would let the three auto giants defer paying billions of dollars to the retiree healthcare trust and suspend the controversial jobs bank programme that pays laid off workers salaries for up to two years.

Gettelfinger said that the union is also considering other cost cutting measures to avoid any of the big three from filing bankruptcy.

Gettelfinger was bitter after union members agreed for concessions and said that the three auto giants and the union were being forced to make sacrifices while huge sums of tax payers' money was doled out to financial institutions with with hardly any commitment on sacrifices.

"Are we going to blame the autoworkers, who are by the way 10 per cent of the cost of an automobile . . . or are we going to take a look at what's happened to our economy, to the housing crunch, to the Wall Street bailout and the failures on Wall Street," Gettelfinger said during a televised Detroit news conference.

President-elect Barack Obama has also praised the three auto makers and said that they have come with a serious plan to save the industry although a majority of Americans are opposed to the bailout to automakers CNN poll repoll revealed.

According to commentators, with a majority of Americans opposing the bailout along with many members of the Congress, there is grave concern among the auto makers that they will not be able to muster enough support in Congress to push the aid through, forcing GM and Chrysler of thinking of filing for a pre arranged bankruptcy.