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DETROIT (Reuters) - General Motors Corp on Tuesday announced a plan to cut costs by $10 billion, suspend its common stock dividend and sell up to $4 billion in assets in a bid to shore up cash to survive a deep industry slump.

The hurried restructuring, GM's second in just six weeks, was forced by high fuel prices, a shift away from trucks and SUVs, the weakest U.S. auto sales in a decade, and growing investor doubts about the automaker's ability to ride out the downturn.

GM, which has lost $51 billion over the past three years as it cut jobs and closed plants, said the new steps were aimed at addressing deepening concerns that have driven its stock price to 54-year lows and raised the cost of insuring its debt against default.

"What we saw was an even decidedly more hostile environment in the capital markets," GM President and Chief Operating Officer Fritz Henderson told reporters. "You saw financial markets almost seize up."

The automaker said it would cut white-collar costs by 20 percent, a step expected to mean the loss of thousands of jobs among the 40,000 salaried workers GM employs in North America.

GM shares rose nearly 7 percent on the restructuring news but remain down 60 percent this year. Since Chief Executive Rick Wagoner took over in 2000, the shares have fallen more than 80 percent.

Analysts said GM's plan, intended to raise $15 billion in liquidity through 2009, addressed the most urgent Wall Street concerns about pressure on its $24 billion in remaining cash.

But they also cautioned that the company's turnaround still hinged on a recovery in the U.S. economy and on GM's ability to sell more fuel-efficient passenger cars, a market now dominated by import brands led by Toyota Motor Corp .

GM has faced criticism for restructuring steps since 2005 that have consistently fallen short of what was required given the downward spiral in its results.

"For now, this solves GM's liquidity issues, but we have to see better demand for automobiles, for cars and trucks, in order for the liquidity crisis to be put to bed," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer at Solaris Asset Management in New York. "They're burning through about $3 billion in cash a quarter. The cash drain has to stop at some point or GM has larger problems."

GM said it would save $10 billion in cash through 2009 through a series of steps that will cut white-collar jobs, retiree health-care coverage and executive bonuses for 2008.

Capital spending will be cut by $1.5 billion, and GM will accelerate plant closures announced last month as it aims to move its vehicle line-up away from a reliance on light trucks.

Lehman Brothers analyst Brian Johnson called the cost-cutting targets "relatively credible" but said the overall plan fell short of a vision for renewal.

"The announcements offered little sense of a 'new' GM strategy or shift in the organizational culture that might set the stage for a more dramatic reinvention," he said in a note to clients.

GM has been under intensifying pressure to cut costs and raise capital because of the slump in U.S. auto sales that drove its first-half sales down 16 percent.

In early June, GM Chief Executive Rick Wagoner announced the company would close four North American truck plants employing about 10,000 workers and try to sell its Hummer brand in response to higher gas prices.

But market sentiment has darkened on GM and the auto sector in the weeks since that announcement, with most analysts no longer expecting a real recovery in U.S. auto sales in 2009.

Wagoner said GM's steps would provide it with ample liquidity through 2009, even assuming a continued weak U.S. market crimped by high oil prices.

GM said it had retained financial advisers to look at other asset sales expected to raise $2 billion to $4 billion by the end of 2009. Executives said potential buyers had already expressed interest in Hummer, but they gave no details.

GM also said it had set an initial target of raising $2 billion to $3 billion in new financing that could be secured by stock in its overseas subsidiaries, its auto brands, its stake in finance company GMAC and real estate.

Wagoner and other executives said GM could borrow significantly more if debt markets recovered.

That deferred payment means GM's major union will be effectively loaning it money at 9 percent interest until the deferred payments to the health care account are made.

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