The U.S. Treasury and General Motors Co may select a lead underwriter for an initial public offering for the automaker as early as next week, Bloomberg News reported on Saturday.

A bank needs to be picked soon in order to prepare for an offering by the fourth quarter, and the Treasury is likely to have more say in the selection than the carmaker itself, according to the report, which cited two unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

The U.S. government acquired 61 percent of GM's shares through its $50 billion bailout of the carmaker, which emerged from a government-sponsored bankruptcy last July.

GM and U.S. Treasury officials met this month with senior officials from Goldman Sachs Group Inc, Bank of America Corp, Citigroup Inc, JPMorgan Chase & Co and Morgan Stanley, the report said, citing one of the sources.

The bankers were asked about how much stock they would recommend selling, how much they thought GM might be worth, and what roadblocks might come up, the report said.

Choosing a lead underwriter in the next week or two would allow the company to file its IPO registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission by July and sell shares to the public by October or November, according to the report.

A GM spokesman contacted by the news agency said he did not know of any imminent decision.

A U.S. Treasury spokesman reached by Reuters declined to comment.

Treasury has hired Lazard Ltd to advise the government on an IPO of the company.

GM chief executive Ed Whitacre said in April that an IPO was a real possibility later this year or in 2011.

(Reporting by Ann Saphir in Chicago and David Lawder in Washington, editing by Vicki Allen)

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