March 26 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. automakers' chief executive officers urged President George W. Bush to back incentives to bring ethanol and biodiesel to more pumps as the companies boost output of so-called flex-fuel vehicles.

Half the vehicles made by General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler AG's Chrysler by 2012 could be able to run on biodiesel or E85, a blend of 85 percent ethanol and 15 percent gasoline, the CEOs said in a statement.

Today's meeting with Bush in Washington was the second time in four months that GM's Rick Wagoner, Ford's Alan Mulally and Chrysler's Tom LaSorda pressed the president to expand access to so-called biofuels. The executives prefer that option over stricter fuel-economy standards as a way to cut U.S. oil use.

``If the goal is to reduce oil imports and improve the environment, the opportunity is first of all in ethanol, biodiesel,'' Wagoner told reporters after the meeting. The CEOs spent ``very little time'' talking about mileage rules, he said.

There are now more than 6 million flex-fuel vehicles in the U.S., while the nation's 170,000 gas stations have only 2,000 pumps for E85 or biodiesel, the CEOs said.

``We are willing to lead the way,'' the automakers' CEOs said in the statement. ``But we need government and fuel providers to increase infrastructure before we can make a meaningful impact.''

Bush's Statement

Bush didn't commit publicly to any biofuel incentives. In a statement, he commended the automakers for building more flex- fuel vehicles, saying, ``That's a major technological breakthrough for the country.''

U.S. producers of ethanol, made chiefly from corn, now receive a tax credit of 51 cents a gallon. They also benefit from a 54-cent tariff on each gallon of imported ethanol. Automakers that build flex-fuel vehicles get a credit letting them boost their fleets' average fuel economy.

Putting an E85 outlet within five miles of most U.S. motorists would require at least 20,000 pumps, said Phil Lampert, executive director of the National Ethanol Vehicle Coalition in Jefferson City, Missouri.

Bush was joined by Vice President Dick Cheney and his energy and transportation secretaries, Samuel Bodman and Mary Peters, at the almost-hourlong White House meeting, part of the effort to push Bush's plan to cut U.S. oil consumption by 20 percent in 10 years.

Alternative Fuels

Three-fourths of the reduction would come from using alternative fuels including ethanol, and the rest from better vehicle fuel economy, Bush said Jan. 23 in his State of the Union address.

After the meeting, Bush examined three vehicles on the South Lawn of the White House: Ford's Edge HySeries, a fuel-cell concept car with a plug-in hybrid drive; GM's flex-fuel Chevrolet Impala that runs on E-85; and Chrysler's Jeep Cherokee biodiesel sport-utility vehicle.

GM, Ford and Chrysler, which posted a combined $16 billion in losses last year, also asked Bush's help to increase investment in battery research to speed development of plug-in hybrids that can be recharged from an electric wall outlet.

Shares of Detroit-based GM rose 26 cents to $32.25 at 4:22 p.m. in New York Stock Exchange composite trading. Shares of Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford fell 2 cents to $7.87, while the U.S. shares of DaimlerChrysler, which is based in Stuttgart, Germany, dropped $1.16 to $81.20.

Pressure on GM, Ford, Chrysler

GM, Ford and Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Chrysler are closing plants and cutting jobs as they struggle to contain market share losses to Japan's Toyota Motor Corp. and Honda Motor Co., the biggest sellers of gasoline-electric hybrids in the U.S.

Neither Japanese company has a flex-fuel vehicle now. Toyota plans to add a flex-fuel version of its big Tundra pickup in 2009. It's also working on a flex-fuel hybrid, North American President Jim Press told a congressional hearing March 14.

The Japanese automakers also say they wouldn't mind an increase in the corporate average fuel economy standard that would require greater fuel efficiency across their fleets. Detroit opposes lifting the so-called CAFE standard.

Passenger-car fleets have had to average 27.5 miles per gallon since 1985. The current standard for pickups, minivans and sport-utility vehicles is 21.6 mpg, rising to 24 mpg starting with 2011 models.

To contact the reporter on this story: Gopal Ratnam in Washington at gratnam1@bloomberg.net

Last Updated: March 26, 2007 17:21 EDT