Bank of America shelves ABN AMRO lawsuit

AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Bank of America Corp (BAC.N: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) has shelved plans to take ABN AMRO NV AAH.AS to court, preferring to wait until the Dutch Supreme Court rules on the Dutch bank's sale of its U.S. unit, a Bank of America spokesman said on Friday.

"Bank of America and ABN ABN.N asked to delay the lawsuit," a spokesman for Bank of America said.

The Dutch Supreme Court will rule late this month or early July on whether ABN AMRO, the Netherlands' biggest bank, can proceed with the sale of LaSalle Bank.

In May, a Dutch commercial court had frozen the sale in order to allow a shareholder vote. Bank of America has appealed the ruling, accusing the court of unlawful action by blocking the sale.

The suspended deal to sell LaSalle is central to the takeover battle for ABN, which is now weighing a 71 billion euro buyout bid by the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS.L: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Fortis (FOR.BR: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) and Santander (SAN.MC: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) against an all-share offer by Barclays BAR.L.

A purchase of ABN would be the biggest-ever bank takeover.