UTRECHT, Netherlands (Reuters);

The Royal Bank of Scotland-led consortium that wants to buy ABN AMRO entered talks with the Dutch bank at an executive level yesterday, consortium member Fortis said.

RBS, together with Belgian-Dutch Fortis and Spain's Santander, has made a mostly cash €71 billion (US$97.83 billion) bid for ABN, the Netherlands' biggest bank. Britain's Barclays is offering about €65 billion for ABN, mostly in shares.

Neutral stance

ABN took a neutral stance on the competing offers last week, but has made clear that it favours Barclays, which has promised to keep the combined bank's headquarters in Amsterdam. The consortium wants to split up ABN if its bid prevails.

"My understanding is they (ABN) now want to engage into a dialogue with us. It is ongoing, it started today," Fortis chief executive Jean-Paul Votron told reporters after presenting the bank's quarterly results.

ABN and the RBS consortium began talking after ABN withdrew its earlier recommendation for a Barclays bid announced in April.

A "dialogue on an executive level" began yesterday, Fortis executive board member Lex Kloosterman also said yesterday.

Votron and Kloosterman declined to comment on ABN's preference for a deal with Barclays.

"We are now in a situation to have a constructive dialogue with ABN AMRO. I cannot say about what we are talking. ABN has, like us, the obligation to meet each other halfway to make the transaction a success," Kloosterman said.