American International Group Inc. announced Friday that it faced an $8.87 billion loss in the fourth quarter as its general insurance business posted weakness and the company ran up expenses from paying back government loans.

The jittery insurer also posted in an annual regulatory filing that it may require additional assistance from the Government. However, AIG has posted similar warnings in past filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

The fourth-quarter performance depicted an improvement from the $61.7 billion AIG lost in the year ago period; however, they were significantly lowered than analysts' expectation. They also followed two straight profitable quarters.

The company witnessed a 2.2 percent drop in new premiums in its Chartis general insurance business, compared with the previous year.

The company poses the slide in part to the weak economy as the culprit. It also reported lower sales of life insurance products, and it added $2.3 billion to its reserves against losses in its commercial insurance business.

AIG also reported $6.2 billion in expenses from repaying Government loans.