London  - Britain's Lloyds TSB Bank agreed Thursday to take over ailing mortgage lender HBOS in a giant merger sparked by the escalating market turmoil following the collapse of US Lehman Brothers this week.

The mammoth deal, backed by the government, is widely seen as a rescue operation for HBOS, Britain's biggest mortgage lender, and comes amid a near-unprecedented week of financial turmoil which saw a run on the group's shares.

Paris - Buoyed by the intervention of major central

Frankfurt - Six major central banks pumped billions of US dollars of extra short-term credit into the world's financial markets Thursday, amid fears that this week's crisis was drying up liquidity.

European share prices steadied after the joint operation, which was triggered by the growing reluctance of commercial banks to lend one another money in a week where one financial institution after another has succumbed.

Frankfurt  - German bank Commerzbank affirmed Thursday its plans to take over Dresdner Bank, rejecting speculation that earlier hit the Commerzbank share price.

Insurance group Allianz, the current owner of Dresdner, also said the deal was still intact.

"There has been no change to the plan," an Allianz spokeswoman told the dpa-AFX financial news wire in Germany. A Commerzbank spokesman said the merger would proceed "as planned."

Allianz stock was trading at 92.35 euros, down 2.4 per cent, just after noon on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange. Commerzbank bounced back from the morning speculation, trading at 14.17 euros, up 5.1 per cent.

Frankfurt - Major central banks have intervened in foreign exchange markets to improved liquidity, a statement early Thursday from the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt said.

It said the concerted move aimed to ease strains in worldwide exchange of dollars. Together with other moves by individual central banks in recent days, it would improve liquidity on world financial markets.

The participating banks were the ECB, the Bank of Canada, the Bank of England, the US Federal Reserve, the Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank.

All national banks have decided to suspend their work on September 24 and 25. The two day strike is called by the Kerla unit of United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU). The nation wide strike would adversely hit the banking services for two days. About one lakh bank employees and officers are expected to participate in the strike.