The Dutch-Belgian financial services group Fortis is expected to win control over Generale Bank, after Dutch ABN AMRO dropped out of the battle for Belgium's largest bank.

Over the weekend, Generale's board of directors branded the ABN bid hostile and approved a 10 per cent share issue for Fortis. The issue of the so-called poison pill was fatal for ABN AMRO since it lifted Fortis' stake in Generale Bank to 41.2 per cent.

Fortis already had a large stake in Generale since it had agreed a deal with shareholders Societe Generale de Belgique, Mutuelle Solvay and Union Financi>ere Boel last month. The fight for the Belgium bank gained momentum on Saturday when the board of directors of Generale took sides with Fortis.

Generale said that a takeover by ABN would do serious damage to the autonomy and integrity of Belgium's largest and oldest bank. The board also said ABN AMRO could not assure the preservation of the name and logo of the bank and its branches outside Belgium.

ABN AMRO, the largest bank in the Netherlands, said it would continue to look for a second home market within Europe. Its chairman, Mr Jan Kalff, said over the weekend there were enough banks left in Europe to link up with but he declined to name any potential partners. It was the second disappointment this year for ABN. In April, it failed in its bid for France's CIC. The French government opted for a French solution when it chose Credit Mutual to buy a majority stake in regional banking network CIC.