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Argentine President Cristina Fernandez announced a much-anticipated government loan for General Motors Corp.'s (GMGMQ) Argentine unit Thursday to aid in the production of new small car model at a plant in Rosario.

Details on the loan weren't immediately clear, although in a presentation before workers at the plant Fernandez said the money would flow from state retirement agency, Anses.

In the leadup to the announcement, various news reports had put the value of the loan at around 200 million pesos ($53.4 million). And in a separate report on state news agency Telam Thursday, Edgar Lourencon, president of GM Latin America, said the Anses funds would form about half of a planned ARS500 million investment.

Following GM's announcement in the U.S. Monday that it was filing for bankruptcy protection, the company's Argentine unit ran a series of ads in which it declared that the local operations were in a healthy state.

In the Telam interview, Lourencon said the "support of the government had been decisive in the decision to invest" in Argentina.

In her speech to factory workers, Fernandez said the ultimate goal of state support for the auto industry was to produce "a car with an engine that is completely Argentine made." This, she said, "is one of the great challenges."

Anses, which has become a key vehicle in the Argentine government's economic-stimulus efforts since it took over nine privately run pension funds in November last year, was vital to that effort she said.

-By Michael Casey, Dow Jones Newswires; michael.j.casey@dowjones.com; 54-11-4103 6740