NEW YORK, May 3: Auto giant General Motors said on Thursday its latest quarterly profit was dented by losses at its lending arm due to weakness in the housing market even as results in automotive operations improved.

The net profit for the Detroit giant for the first quarter amounted to $62 million, compared with $602 million in the same period a year earlier.

The results excluding special item were 17 cents per share, well below market expectations of 84 cents per share.

Overall revenues for GM fell 16 per cent from a year ago to $43.9bn. That was better than Wall Street forecasts of $40.88bn.

Automotive operations produced a net profit of $272m in the quarter as GM showed some progress in pulling out of a slide that has allowed Japan’s Toyota to overtake the Detroit firm as the world’s biggest automaker.

GM’s auto operations in North America, undergoing a major overhaul, lost $85m, narrower that the $251m deficit a year earlier.

“The first quarter of 2007 marked another quarter of continued progress in GM’s global automotive operations,” said GM chairman and chief executive Rick Wagoner.

The key area of weakness for the company was the GMAC financial arm, the automaker now holds 49pc of GMAC after selling a majority stake last year.—AFP