June 14, 2007	Thursday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 28, 1428

LONDON, June 13: Europe's main stock markets dropped on Wednesday, mirroring losses in Asia, after a weak performance by Wall Street overnight, dealers said.

London's FTSE 100 index of leading shares lost 0.29 per cent to 6,501.50 points, Frankfurt's DAX 30 shed 0.68 per cent to 7,626.07 points and in Paris the CAC 40 slid 0.14 per cent to 5,889.86.

The DJ Euro Stoxx 50 index of leading eurozone shares declined 0.47 per cent to 4,362.60 points. The euro stood at 1.3267 dollars.

US shares stumbled Tuesday as investors retrenched amid concerns that rising inflation could prompt the Federal Reserve to tighten credit, dealers said.

In London the banking sector struggled, amid a new turn in the ABN Amro takeover saga. According to the Financial Times, British bank Barclays has drawn up contingency plans to restructure its agreed all-share offer for Dutch rival ABN Amro with a significant cash sweetener.

Barclays was not expected to make a decision about restructuring its 65 billion-euro ($86.4 billion) bid until it becomes clear whether its rival bidder, a consortium led by Royal Bank of Scotland, can press ahead with its offer worth 71.4 billion euros, the FT said.

Barclays' share price fell 0.27 per cent to 731.5 pence and RBS dropped 0.70 per cent to 637.5 pence on Wednesday. ABN Amro rose 0.63 per cent to 35.32 euros, outperforming Amsterdam's main share index, which was lower.—AFP