DETROIT – Financially battered General Motors said Tuesday it will raise $15 billion in liquidity by 2009 through potential asset sales, cost cutting and other financing measures to survive a steep downturn in U.S. vehicle sales, precipitated in part by high gasoline prices.

GM also said it will suspend the dividend it pays out to shareholders, cut salaried-worker headcount and benefits, and reduce executive compensation. What?s more, GM plans to lower capital spending next year and reduce the manufacturing capacity devoted to the production of pickup trucks and sport-utility vehicles, gas guzzling vehicles that are experiencing particularly slow sales. But unfortunately for GM, these vehicles have big profit margins.

The actions come about a month after GM said it will close four more assembly plants by 2010. GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner told reporters that the company is going through an unprecedented difficult time and that he is not ruling out further actions.

“We are responding aggressively to the challenges of today’s U.S. auto market,” Wagoner said in a prepared statement. “We will continue to take the steps necessary to align our business structure with the lower vehicle sales volumes and shifts in sales mix. We remain committed to bringing to market great products that target changing consumer preferences for more fuel-efficient vehicles.”

While Wagoner would not project when GM would return to profitability, GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said he believes these actions will put GM on solid ground once the U.S. auto market bounces back in 2010.

“We’re trying to build a liquidity plan that allows us to traverse two consecutive years of a light market,” GM Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson said during an interview with reporters. “This allows us to focus our minds on what we need to do to be competitive.”

GM reiterated on Tuesday that it has ample liquidity to meet its 2008 funding requirements, but “is taking additional measures to bolster liquidity to protect against a prolonged U.S. downturn.” GM had liquidity of $23.9 billion at the end of the first quarter and had access to credit facilities of an extra $7 billion.

The company is assuming for planning purposes that annual U.S. auto industry sales of light vehicles will be 14 million units, which is well below trend and lower than expectations of GM and others that sales will come in at just under 15 million this year. The company also assumes it will have a lower share of the U.S. market, at about 21 percent, down from nearly 24 percent in 2007. GM also expects that oil prices will range from $130 to $150 a barrel.

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