AIG is seeking approval from President Obama's compensation czar to hand out $250 million in promised bonuses despite the public outcry earlier this year over the last round.

American International Group has asked senior Treasury official Kenneth Feinberg to rule on several categories of bonuses that come due during the next nine months, a person familiar with the discussions told the Washington Post.

The bonuses include $2.4 million in payments owed to top corporate executives in coming days. But the vastly larger sum comes due next March when AIG is scheduled to pay more than $200 million in bonuses aimed at retaining executives at AIG Financial Products, the unit whose complex derivative contracts brought the world economy to its knees last fall and nearly destroyed the insurance giant.

AIG came under heavy fire earlier this year when it paid about $165 million in retention bonuses to Financial Products employees. The contracts that guaranteed those awards also promised similar payments in March 2010 and AIG has been exploring the issue in hopes of preventing another public relations disaster, company officials have said.

AIG officials have sought a ruling from Feinberg, whom Obama appointed last month to oversee the compensation of top executives at the seven firms that have received the largest federal bailouts.

AIG doesn't need the federal government's permission, despite its $180 billion bailout package, because the bonuses were promised before the company was rescued by taxpayer funds.

But AIG spokeswoman Christina Pretto told the newspaper that the company had sought the government's input in an effort to resolve its lingering pay issues the right way to make sure all parties were comfortable before moving forward.

"We all have the same objective -- to execute the restructuring successfully, to repay taxpayers, to reduce risk and to wind down [Financial Products]," Pretto said.

Click here to read the Washington Post report.