European competition commissioner Neelie Kroes has given the Netherlands a further 24 hours to finalise the sale of parts of ABN Amro bank.

It is the sixth new deadline Kroes has extended to finance minister Wouter Bos since she ordered the sale two years ago.
‘Every further delay will only be permitted to finalise a binding sales agreement,’ the commission said in a statement on Monday evening.
Kroes ordered the sale of ABN Amro’s HBU banking unit and several other operations as conditions for approving the merger of ABN Amro with Fortis. Germany’s Deutsche Bank pulled out of the negotiations several weeks ago but is now back round the table.
Bos, in Luxembourg for a European ministers meeting, told the Financieele Dagblad he could not say if the deal would be sealed on Tuesday. ‘We have gone a long way,’ the paper quoted him as saying.