Brussels - Belgium's former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene is to head the board of the struggling Franco-Belgian financial service group Dexia, Belgium's Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced Tuesday after an overnight crisis meeting in Brussels.

French banker and BNP Paribas executive Pierre Mariani is to serve as as chief executive. Mariani is currently a senior executive vice president at France's largest bank, BNP Paribas, France's largest bank.

New York - Bank of America Corp saw third quarter profits drop by more than two-thirds, prompting it on Monday to halve its dividend payments and sell 10 billion dollars in stock to raise money.

"These are the most difficult times for financial institutions that I have experienced in my 39 years in banking," Kenneth D Lewis, the bank's chairman and chief executive said in a statement.

New York - In the acquisition scramble for Wachovia bank, Citigroup Monday sued rival Wells Fargo & Co and Wachovia for 60 billion dollars in punitive and compensatory damages, Citigroup said.

The move is the latest in the Wall Street scramble as the US financial system struggles for stability amidst a severe credit crunch. Despite Friday's passage of a 
700-billion-dollar bail-out plan by the US government, US stocks continued to plummet Monday, with the three major indices losing more than 5 per cent in trading at midday.

New York - US banking giant Citigroup Inc. announced Monday it is suing Wachovia Corp. for 60 billion dollars in damages and punitive fees after the latter pulled out of a takeover deal.

Citigroup's announcement was the latest twist after a frenzied weekend of legal developments surrounding the battle for the takeover of Wachovia.

After an apparent agreement with Citigroup last week for a 2.16 billion dollar takeover, Wachovia on October 3 suddenly pulled out of the deal, announcing that instead it would favour a 15-billion-dollar merger offer by Wells Fargo & Co.

Amsterdam  - The Dutch government has issued state bonds worth 8.64 billion euros (11.76 billion dollars), the government said in a statement on Monday.

Part of the issue will be used to help finance the takeover of the Dutch division of former Belgian-Dutch bank and insurance giant Fortis.

On Friday, the Dutch nationalized the entire Dutch Fortis division, paying some 16.8 billion euros.

On Monday, financial analysts from SNS Securities, Petercam and Dresdner Kleinwort calculated the stock value of Fortis at the Dutch exchanges around 8.225 billion euros.

If accurate, then each of the 2.35 billion shares is worth 3.5 euros per share.

Reykjavik  - The Icelandic Financial Supervisory Authority on Monday said was temporarily suspending trading of shares and other "financial instruments" issued by several banks including Glitnir bank, Kaupthing bank and Landsbanki.

A week ago, the government of Iceland bought a majority stake in Glitnir bank.

The government paid 600 million euros (877 million dollars) for a 75-per-cent stake in Glitnir, saying the move was aimed at strengthening Glitnir's capital ratio and liquidity.

The trading halt Monday was linked to a possible announcement of further government intervention.