A government task force set up to help revive Japan Airlines Corp. said it would review the carrier's turnaround plans from scratch and that splitting it into "good" and "bad" parts was an option.

JAL, swamped by $15 billion of debt and headed for its second straight annual loss, asked on Thursday for a government bailout, but the new transport minister withheld his support on concerns the airline's cost-cutting plans would not go far enough.

Shares of JAL continued to tumble, falling another seven per cent, as the former state-owned national flag carrier's fate remains highly uncertain.

The plunge in JAL's stock price has wiped out nearly 100 billion yen in market value in the past two days, taking its total capitalisation down to 361 billion yen - nearly half that of smaller rival All Nippon Airways.

Delta Airlines and a rival group of carriers led by American Airlines are holding separate talks to invest in and deepen ties with JAL, eyeing growth in Japan and the rest of Asia.

The idea of breaking JAL into "good" and "bad" parts, similar to the restructuring of U.S. automaker General Motors GM.UL, has been floated by creditors, banking sources have told Reuters.

But the task force also reiterated Transport Minister Seiji Maehara's stance that bankruptcy was not being considered.

"We are not thinking about using legal procedures. We can work things out among interested parties," the head of the task force, Shinjiro Takagi, told reporters.