ABN AMRO talked to RBS about buyback of some assets

Dutch state-owned bank ABN AMRO has held talks with Royal Bank of Scotland on buying back some its former operations, the Dutch Finance Ministry said on Monday.

"The potential buyback of some assets from RBS will be looked into as part of the new strategy of ABN AMRO," a spokeswoman for the Dutch Finance Ministry said, confirming comments from Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos in the Financial Times.

She declined to say whether the banks were still in talks about a potential deal.

RBS, which expects a 2008 loss of up to 28 billion pounds ($40 billion), has been hit hard by the credit crisis and is reviewing its operations and may sell some assets.

The Dutch government nationalised ABN AMRO last October as part of a rescue of Belgian-Dutch group Fortis, which bought ABN in 2007 in a consortium with RBS and Spain's Santander for 70 billion euros ($90 billion).

The Netherlands owns most of ABN's Dutch retail and corporate banking operations, while RBS owns ABN's former wholesale and investment banking unit, its Asian operations, and some Dutch corporate banking activities.