European Competition Commissioner Neelie Kroes remains to be convinced that the Dutch support for ING Bank in January was legitimate.

Dutch Finance Minister Wouter Bos has been trying for six months to prove to Ms Kroes that the financial injection was not state aid which undermined the market mechanism. So far, Mr Bos' attempts have been to no avail. The European Commissioner has now given him some more time to clear matters up.

If the European Commission is not convinced, ING Bank will have to pay a substantial levy, which could run into hundreds of millions of euros.

The Dutch state took over 22 billion euros worth of risky investments from ING in January to keep the bank in business. ING is the Netherlands' biggest bank, serving both businesses and millions of private clients.