DEMOCRAT leaders have ordered the United States' Big Three car makers to submit a detailed loan application to Congress so law makers can decide whether to give the beleaguered industry an emergency US$25 billion lifeline.

In a letter to auto executives released on Friday afternoon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the reigning Democrats in the House of Representatives and the Senate, demanded a detailed accounting by December 2 of the companies' financial condition and short-term cash needs, as well as how they would achieve long-term viability.

'The auto companies' shareholders, business partners, and prospective benefactors - the American people - deserve to see a plan that is accountable to taxpayers and that is viable for the long-term,' Pelosi and Reid wrote.

The Democrats also told the companies to show how they would ensure that the government would be reimbursed and share in future profits, eliminate dividends and lavish executive pay packages, meet fuel-efficiency standards and deal with their health care and pension obligations if they got federal help.

The Bush administration sharply criticized the Democrats for leaving Washington for a congressional recess without acting on a rescue plan for the car makers.

'How could they leave town when the auto companies were just here (this) week saying some of them were on the verge of running out of cash?' Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said. 'I think it's a very irresponsible attitude.'

White House spokesman Dana Perino said it was 'appalling Congress decided to leave town without addressing a problem that they said needed to be addressed.'