New York  - US banking giant Citigroup reported Friday it lost 966 million dollars in the first quarter of 2009, better than analysts' projections.

The figure compares with the 5.1 billion dollars which Citigroup had lost in the first quarter of last year.

It was the sixth straight quarterly loss for Citigroup, which in 2008 posted record losses of nearly 28 billion dollars.

Now fighting for survival amid massive state support amounting so far to some 350 billion dollars, Citigroup is in the process of selling off some divisions in a reorganisation.

Citigroup became the latest major US bank this week to report improved results in the first faint signs of the start of a recovery in the hard-hit US financial sector.(dpa)