MILAN, Jan 29 (Reuters) - Top managers from ailing Fiat and its creditor banks are due to meet on Monday to discuss the future of the group's partnership with General Motors Corp , a financial source said on Wednesday.
The source said the meeting would involve the chairman and chief executives of Fiat and each of its creditor banks and would also likely consider other aspects of Fiat's restructuring, including the possible spinoff of Fiat Auto.
The meeting, the first major gathering of top Fiat executives and bankers since the death of company patriarch Gianni Agnelli last week, comes amid a growing number of calls for the company to take action to secure its future.
On Saturday, Rainer Masera, chief executive of Sanpaolo IMI said there was "urgent need" to plan the future of Fiat, while on Tuesday, the CEO of fellow creditor Banca Intesa , Corrado Passera, said a five billion-euro recapitalisation and spin-off for Fiat Auto would boost value of the rest of the Fiat group.
Italian newspapers reported on Tuesday that Fiat's board would meet over the weekend but the company said no board meeting had yet been called.
Fiat's top executives met their GM counterparts earlier in January in New York and were reported to have floated the idea of spinning off carmaker Fiat Auto, in which GM has a 20 percent stake.
Fiat can force GM to buy the rest of the cash-bleeding car arm from next year under a "put" option that was taken as an almost certain way out of the auto business until recently.
Italian media have reported that GM may invest about one billion euros in Fiat Auto in return for being released from the obligation to buy the 80 percent it does not own.
Fiat's four top creditors -- Banca Intesa, Sanpaolo IMI, Capitalia and Unicredito -- have a strong say in the company's future as the providers of a three billion-euro convertible loan last year.
Intesa's Passera also said Fiat Auto's ties with GM were vital for its revival and a spin-off of the unit would simplify its relationship with GM.
GM and Fiat have two money-saving joint ventures to build powertrains and engines and to buy car parts together.
Fiat Chairman Paolo Fresco, the architect of the GM deal, said last week that Fiat was considering a spin-off as a way of attracting new investors into the company.
The board has not met since entrepreneur Roberto Colaninno presented his own plan for Fiat, offering cash and demanding the chief executive seat in return.
Financial sources have said Fiat and its banks have invited financier Emilio Gnutti to invest in the fallen icon of Italian industry while Swiss entrepreneur Silvio Tarchini has said he would be willing to invest in Fiat.