Auto dealers pressed U.S. officials Friday to take more steps to unfreeze credit markets, becoming the latest segment of the car industry to seek the government's help.

The National Automobile Dealers Association met with two members of President Barack Obama's auto industry advisory team for about 75 minutes Friday morning. The dealers didn't ask for direct aid, said John McEleney, the association's chairman, but instead asked for modifications to existing government programs to stimulate the flow of credit.

Dealers increasingly find it difficult to obtain loans they need to stock their lots with vehicles, further hurting U.S. car sales, said McEleney.

The meeting at Treasury Department headquarters included Ron Bloom and Steven Rattner, who are advising the Obama administration on the auto industry, and about half a dozen officials with the dealers association, including representatives of dealers who sell General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC vehicles, McEleney said.

A Treasury Department spokesman didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

McEleney said Bloom and Rattner were receptive to the dealers' concerns but were noncommittal.

"They didn't come out and tell you what they could or couldn't do, but they seemed to be sympathetic to the problem," McEleney said in a phone interview with Dow Jones Newswires. "I think they had a much better grasp of it when we were done."

He said the meeting focused mostly on dealers' concerns about the administration's new lending program, the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility, which is designed to generate consumer and business lending.

Because of requirements on bond ratings, dealers fear the program's benefits to the auto industry will be muted. The dealers urged changes to the program so that the lending arms of Detroit's struggling auto makers - GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. (F) - will be ensured access, McEleney said.

-By Josh Mitchell, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-6637; joshua.mitchell@dowjones.com