It is realistic that the U.S. Treasury will sell all of its General Motors Co stock within a year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Wednesday, citing an unnamed Treasury official.

The newspaper said timing of the sale of the government's share of GM would depend on the performance in the next year of the automaker and of the financial markets in general.

A Treasury official had previously told Reuters that the federal government wanted to get out of its stake in GM by the 2012 presidential elections, which occur in November.

General Motors went through a government-sponsored bankruptcy in 2009 and emerged 60.8-percent owned by the U.S. Treasury.

In November, GM returned as a publicly traded company after a record $23.1 billion IPO.

(Reporting by Bernie Woodall, editing by Gerald E. McCormick)

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