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.

New York  - A possible compromise in the takeover battle for ailing Wachovia bank was in the making, with the two takeover rivals, Citigroup Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. considering a deal to divide up the the bank, the Wall Street Journal reported Monday.

The newspaper said the two banks, with officials of the Federal Reserve and the US Treasury Department also involved, were discussing this scenario to end their takeover battle which in turn was disrupting a federal rescue of Wachovia.

According to the Wall Street Journal, which cited people familiar with the developments, executives at Charlotte, North Carolina-based Wachovia - the fourth-biggest US bank - were excluded from the talks.

Berlin  - The European Central Bank (ECB) has agreed to relax quality rules for securities to expedite the rescue of German lender Hypo Real Estate (HRE), according to German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck Monday.

He spoke just hours after Germany unveiled an emergency loan package of 50 billion euros for HRE, 35 billion of which is backstopped by a joint government and banking industry guarantee.

His remarks in Berlin were the first indication of how the rest of the credit is to be secured.

Paris  - French bank BNP Paribas will pay 14.5 billion euros (19.7 billion dollars) to take over the majority of the troubled insurance and banking giant Fortis in Belgium and Luxembourg, BNP Paribas said on Monday.

The deal, which involves 9 billion euros worth of shares and 5.5 billion euros in cash, includes the purchase of 75 per cent of Fortis from the Belgian government and 16 per cent of Fortis Luxembourg, which raises BNP's stake in the Luxembourg segment of Fortis to 67 per cent.