NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp Chief Executive Rick Wagoner will resign from the top job at the struggling automaker, a person familiar with the matter said on Sunday, just a day before the U.S. government makes a key announcement on whether it will extend more aid.

General Motors Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner addresses the media during a news conference at GM world headquarters in Detroit February 17, 2009. REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

The person, who declined to be identified because the decision has not been made public yet, did not provide further detail.

Wagoner came under fire for his stewardship of GM late last year when U.S. lawmakers debated a bailout for the automaker. He had repeatedly said that he intended to stay on, and GM’s board has offered unanimous support for him.

A GM spokesman declined comment.

GM, which has lost about $82 billion since 2005, has been kept afloat since the start of the year with $13.4 billion in emergency loans from the U.S. Treasury.

The automaker has failed to clinch needed concessions from bondholders and the United Auto Workers union that government officials had set as targets to justify further government aid.

GM is seeking another $16.6 billion in U.S. government funding and has said it needs new lending as soon as next month to avoid a cash crisis.

U.S. President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast on Sunday that GM and smaller rival Chrysler had not done enough yet to become “lean, mean and competitive” under federal oversight.

Obama is expected to announce additional aid and conditions for such assistance for GM and Chrysler on Monday.

It was not immediately clear if U.S. officials had played a role in Wagoner’s resignation, but Obama last week cited mismanagement “over the last several years” in the auto industry, a point that hit Wagoner hardest since his counterparts at Ford and Chrysler are new to the business and their companies.

GM has been in talks with its bondholders to reduce by two-thirds the roughly $27 billion in debt that they hold. GM and advisers to its bondholders have exchanged proposals on a debt restructuring, but have made little progress toward a deal.

After GM reported a $15.5 billion loss in the second quarter of last year, the automaker’s leading outside director, George Fisher made a rare public expression of confidence and said that the board still believed Wagoner and his management team were “the right guys” to lead GM.

GM shares have fallen almost 95 percent since 2000, when Wagoner took over as chief executive.