WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House selected a Wall Street financier yesterday to advise Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on the restructuring of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC.

Steven Rattner, co-founder of Quadrangle Group LLC, will serve as counsellor to Geithner, who is leading an auto industry task force charged with shaping the future of GM and Chrysler.

The White House said in a statement that Rattner would advise Geithner "on a variety of economic and financial matters, and will lead the Treasury's efforts with regard to the automobile sector".

Rattner had been a leading candidate to become the so-called "car czar". But President Barack Obama decided instead to create a task force led by Geithner and White House economic aide Larry Summers to review $17.4 billion in federal loans to GM and Chrysler and their requests for billions more in aid.

Quadrangle Group said yesterday that Rattner was leaving his role as managing principal of the firm to take the Treasury position.

Obama's auto task force held its first meeting on Friday and is working with the companies, the United Auto Workers union, bondholders and other stakeholders to force concessions and develop a restructuring of GM and Chrysler by March 31.

If the companies fail to make a convincing case, the Obama administration could pull the loans, which could force the companies into bankruptcy and threaten hundreds of thousands of jobs.

Rattner will join a team that is composed of other members of Obama's Cabinet including the secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor and Energy as well as the heads of several government agencies.

Rattner, who co-founded Quadrangle Group in 2000, previously served as deputy chairman and deputy chief executive officer of Lazard Freres & Co. LLC. He is a former reporter with The New York Times and is married to Maureen White, a former national finance chair of the Democratic National Committee.