A deal could put an end to the three-month bidding war for ABN and result in the world's biggest bank takeover. Barclays' existing all-share offer for ABN is rivaled by a higher, mostly cash bid by a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland.

Citing unidentified banking sources, the BBC said on its Web site www.bbcnews.com that if the talks succeeded, China would hold a 7 percent stake in the merged bank, while Singapore would own 3 percent through its investment holding company, Temasek.

However, an industry source, who declined to be identified, cautioned against assuming -- as the BBC report did -- that China's newly formed investment authority was the institution investing in Barclays.

Other banking sources floated the name of China Development Bank, one of the country's three policy-driven lenders, as the institution that might buy into Barclays.

The Wall Street Journal, citing people familiar with the matter, said Barclays was close to an agreement to sell what it described as a large stake to Temasek and another investor to help back its bid for ABN.

The newspaper said on its www.wsj.com Web site that while the size of Temasek's potential stake in Barclays was not clear, a Barclays stake of 5 percent to 10 percent would be worth about $4.8 billion to $9.6 billion, based on Barclays's market value.

Flush with $1.33 trillion in foreign exchange reserves, China has made no secret of its intention to diversity its portfolio of foreign holdings, which is now concentrated in government assets, and is expected to be an increasingly active source of global funding.

European politicians, meanwhile, nervous about prize domestic assets being bought up by increasingly powerful state investment agencies in countries such as China, Russia and the United Arab Emirates, have spoken openly about possible legislation to ward off unwanted suitors.

Spokesmen for Temasek and Barclays declined to comment.

Barclays said last week that it might add cash to sweeten its agreed 65 billion euro ($90 billion) offer for ABN as it battles against a higher bid from the RBS-led consortium that includes Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spain's Santander.

The BBC said the two Asian governments would pay around 740 pence for each Barclays share, 3.7 percent above Friday's closing price of 713.5 pence.

If Barclays fails in its improved bid to buy ABN, the newly formed Chinese investment authority and Temasek would instead take smaller stakes in Barclays, the BBC said.

The deal is being arranged with the help of U.S. private equity firm Blackstone, which in May sold a $3 billion stake in itself to the Chinese state, it said. Blackstone shares have lost more than 16 percent of their value since the company's stock was listed in New York on June 22.

China is looking for ways to invest its foreign reserves, the world's biggest, and is in the process of setting up a $200 billion fund for such investments.

Around 35 percent of Temasek's S$129 billion ($85 billion) portfolio is made up of financial services firms and a deal to buy a stake in what would be one of the world's biggest lenders would further cement its position as a large investor in banks.

Temasek owns stakes in several of Singapore's biggest firms and has expanded aggressively in Asia since 2002 in an effort to boost its investment returns. Last year, it bought an 11.6 percent stake in London-based emerging markets bank Standard Chartered.