NEW YORK: General Motors Co remains committed to repaying its billions of dollars in government loans, though it's too soon to say when that will happen, the automaker's chairman said.

"Can GM pay back its loans? You bet," Ed Whitacre said during an address at Texas Lutheran University in Seguin, Texas. "I can't tell you when, but it won't be very long."

But Whitacre added that the company, which has received more than $50 billion in taxpayer bailouts and is majority-owned by the US government, has a long way to go before it's in "fighting shape" again.