BARCLAYS Plc, the UK's fourth-biggest lender by market value, said sovereign wealth funds should be welcomed worldwide as suppliers of funding, as analysts speculate the company will need extra financing.

"No one should fear sovereign wealth funds - quite the opposite," Barclays Chairman Marcus Agius told reporters in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. "As long as they continue to act responsibly, which I'm sure they will, they will be seen for what they are - pools of capital which will be applied intelligently around the world."

Agius, speaking at the World Economic Forum on East Asia in Malaysia, called sovereign wealth funds "a very good fact of life." He declined to comment on Barclays' capital position and said his comments on sovereign wealth funds were "generic."

Analysts, including Citigroup Inc, Standard & Poor's Equity Research Ltd and Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc, estimate Barclays will need at least 7 billion pounds (US$13.6 billion) to strengthen its balance sheet, Bloomberg News said. Barclays can strengthen its capital ratios without having to sell shares to shore up capital depleted by credit-related writedowns, Finance Director Chris Lucas said last Thursday.

Barclays is in talks with sovereign wealth funds to gain more than 3 billion pounds of funding, the London-based Sunday Telegraph reported on June 8.

The company sold shares to Singapore's Temasek Holdings Pte and Beijing-based China Development Bank last year to help finance the acquisition of Amsterdam-based ABN Amro Holding NV.

Barclay's Chief Executive Officer John Varley said on May 12 the firm won't rule out raising additional capital, or mergers and acquisitions.