American International Group Inc's jet-leasing unit International Lease Finance Corp (ILFC) is going to pay back $2 billion in short-term debt which is due Thursday, the Wall Street Journal said, citing company officials.

ILFC expects to meet its debt payment (Thursday Oct 15) through funds provided by AIG, the paper cited an AIG spokeswoman as saying on Wednesday. ILFC will disclose the details of the funding in due course.

The paper cited ILFC Chief Executive Steven Udvar-Hazy as saying that the company's leasing business remained profitable.

We're now generating $6 billion in annual lease income and that generates a lot of cash, the paper quoted Udvar-Hazy as saying. We're paying down $2 billion in debt on October 15.

AIG could not be immediately reached for comment by Reuters outside regular business hours.

Earlier this week, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters that AIG is in talks to sell a small part of ILFC to a group led by Udvar-Hazy.

(Reporting by Ajay Kamalakaran in Bangalore; Editing by Kim Coghill)

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