BARCLAYS Plc, the United Kingdom's third-biggest bank, may buy parts of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc's European investment bank after agreeing to acquire the bankrupt securities firm's North American business for US$1.75 billion.

Barclays plans to purchase Lehman's investment banking, fixed-income and equities sales, trading and research divisions in North America, which employ about 10,000 people, plus the company's headquarters in New York and two data centers.

The London-based bank also is in talks to take over parts of Lehman's equities business in Europe, Barclays President Robert Diamond told analysts yesterday.

Lehman, which survived railroad bankruptcies of the 1800s, the Great Depression in the 1930s and the collapse of hedge fund Long-Term Capital Management a decade ago, filed for bankruptcy protection on Monday after record losses in the mortgage market, Bloomberg News said.

Diamond, who abandoned talks to buy all of Lehman less than 24 hours before it collapsed, said less than 5 percent of the assets Barclays is buying are mortgage related.

"Diamond has struck an interesting deal, but to make this work he will have to be flexible with Barclays's balance sheet," said Julian Chillingworth, chief investment officer at Rathbone Brothers Plc.