The Detroit News is reporting the GM bondholers are driving a hard bargain and threatening to push GM into bankruptcy.

General Motors Corp. bondholders want more money in exchange for forgiving billions in debt and are threatening to push the struggling automaker into bankruptcy if they don’t get it, The Detroit News has learned.

GM has been negotiating with bondholders this week on a complicated debt exchange that would cut the automaker’s unsecured debt by two-thirds to $9.2 billion. To get there, bondholders would have to accept about 30 cents on the dollar, which is a requirement of the automaker’s $13.4 billion federal loan package.

But bondholders are demanding 50 cents on the dollar, which they say mirrors the value of concessions being negotiated with the United Auto Workers, said people familiar with the talks.

The demands illustrate the challenges GM is facing in its talks with bondholders and raise doubts about whether the company will succeed in cutting its debt and convincing the government it can repay the loans. If GM cannot reach a deal on concessions with bondholders, as well as with the UAW, the government could recall the $9.4 billion GM has already received and effectively force the automaker into bankruptcy.