The head office of ABN AMRO bank is seen in Amsterdam on Tuesday. British bank Barclays Plc and Dutch rival ABN AMRO aim to agree a tie-up within 30 days, sources close to the matter said on Tuesday.

(Reuters):

Shares in Barclays Plc climbed yesterday as Britain's third-biggest bank moved quicker to agreeing an $80 billion takeover of its Dutch target ABN AMRO than many had expected.

Barclays' chances of landing ABN for the world's biggest bank acquisition also improved after the two sides outlined a framework proposal late on Tuesday, analysts said.

The United Kingdom bank is expected to recoup some of its outlay by selling some ABN businesses. This could include United States retail bank LaSalle, but is more likely to include stakes in Saudi Arabia and parts of wholesale and investment banking, analysts said.

Barclays and ABN said a combined company would be listed in London, headquartered in Amsterdam and have its two top jobs split.

"Clearly the key issue of price remains unsettled, but we believe this announcement was made to emphasise that talks are serious and put a couple of soft issue hurdles in the way of potential counter-bidders," analysts at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods said in a research note.

By 1315 GMT Barclays shares were up 1.9 per cent at 715.5 pence, valuing it at ?45 billion (US$88.1 billion). ABN's shares were up 0.3 per cent at ?31.1, valuing it at over ?59 billion (US$78.4 billion).

Dealers said Barclays may be offering more concessions to ABN than expected to smooth the path to a deal and so reduce the need for it to pay a lofty premium.

CARVE UP?

Barclays is in exclusive talks to buy ABN and is likely to pay about ?33 per share, mostly in shares but possibly including a cash sweetener, analysts said.

It may deliver cash to shareholders from the sale of some units, and reports yesterday said it was considering a sale of LaSalle, which could fetch up to US$23 billion.

A source familiar with the matter added that the tallks are still at such an early stage that nothing has yet been ruled out, including such asset sales.

"They would desire to hold on to all of it if they could, but people may be expecting them to do one or two side deals to get some higher value for some of these assets," said Steve Hayne, analyst at Fox-Pitt Kelton.

"This is a complex deal with operations all over the world, so at some point they run out of resources to properly and quickly integrate. So if they can reduce that complexity a little bit and enhance value through onselling then it could be in their interests," he added.

Nick Hill, credit analyst at Standard & Poor's concurred. "It may be tempting to sell even if it makes more sense to keep something for long-term strategy," he said, adding ABN's Brazilian and Asian business are likely to be kept and Barclays may channel its U.S. attention on its investment bank.

But others said a sale of LaSalle would go against the logic of building a global bank.

"I would regard one of the commercial logics of Barclays bidding for ABN as the opportunity to pick up a U.S. regional business on the cheap," said one analyst, who asked not to be named. "If all Barclays was going to do was to come in and carve up the business, ABN can do that themselves."

A more likely option could be the sale of ABN's nine per cent stake in Italian bank Capitalia, which is worth about 1.5 billion euros.

The U.K. bank has regularly touted Italy's growth prospects, however, and may want to keep the stake alongside its current business there and ABN's Antonveneta.

ABN also owns a 40 per cent stake in the Saudi Hollandi Bank , which is worth about US$1.7 billion and has already attracted interest, sources have said in the past.

Barclays said its talks with ABN were at an early stage and asset sale talk was speculative.