ABN lawyer says RBS in talks to buy LaSalle

Amsterdam, Apr 28: Royal Bank of Scotland, which has threatened to launch a hostile bid together with two other banks for ABN AMRO, is in talks with ABN to buy its U.S. unit LaSalle, a lawyer for ABN said on Saturday.

''Some parties have shown interest in LaSalle, one of which is Royal Bank of Scotland,'' Paul Olden, from law firm NautaDutilh representing ABN AMRO, told a court hearing in Amsterdam.

''RBS is currently negotiating over the conditions ... for a due diligence study (on LaSalle),'' he said.

The comments were made during the hearing on a lawsuit by Dutch shareholders group VEB to freeze the billion sale of ABB's LaSalle to Bank of America.

The RBS consortium includes Santander and Fortis.

Bank of America agreed to buy LaSalle from ABN this week, in a related deal to Barclays' 65 billion euros (.5 billion) offer to buy ABN, but VEB had asked the court to freeze the billion LaSalle deal.

VEB, as well as hedge fund TCI, another ABN shareholder, argue the Bank of America-LaSalle deal makes it difficult for other bidders to make an offer for ABN AMRO.

REUTERS>