With 19 days to go, talks among Chrysler LLC, the Obama administration and Chrysler’s creditors have yet to produce a firm proposal for how the company’s debt should be reduced, people familiar with the process said on Friday.

President Barack Obama’s auto task force says it believes reducing the debts of Chrysler and General Motors Corp. is the key to making them viable, warning it could use bankruptcy to force whatever cuts it seeks. Chrysler has until April 30 to bring back a new viability plan; GM has until May 31.

The automakers and the task force still haven’t given new proposals to the bondholders, but their pitches will be less generous than the automakers’ previous offers that aimed to reduce overall debts by two-thirds.

Chrysler’s debt talks pose a greater challenge than GM’s, and not just because its deadline is first. About 50 firms hold $6.8 billion in loans to Chrysler backed by the company’s assets, known as secured debt, which would be paid back in bankruptcy before the government’s $4-billion loan made last year.

In its February plan, Chrysler warned that secured debtors might get between 11% and 43% of the value of their debt in a bankruptcy, while the government would recover 4% to 7%. The task force has indicated that deeper debt cuts will be needed even if Chrysler joins forces with Fiat SpA.

A steering committee representing Chrysler’s secured bondholders said Friday that they were “engaged in ongoing discussions with the U.S. Treasury and Chrysler and continue to work diligently toward achieving a thoughtful solution prior to the April 30th deadline.”