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Barclays has withdrawn its offer for ABN Amro, after failing to secure enough support for its bid from the Dutch bank's shareholders.

The decision marks an end to the long-running battle between Barclays and the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) to gain control of ABN.

In a statement Barclays said that as of yesterday, the closing date for its offer, it had failed to secure the support of the 80 per cent of ABN shareholders it needed to be successful.

The bank said it was subsequently withdrawing its offer for ABN "with immediate effect".

ABN shareholders have until this afternoon to back a rival €71 billion (£49 billion) mostly-cash offer put forward by a consortium of three banks including RBS.

Analysts had long-predicted that the bid by RBS, Belgian-Dutch group Fortis and Spain's Santander would trump the lower part-share offer put forward by Barclays.

The value of the latter bid has slumped in recent weeks as a result of ongoing turmoil on the financial markets, with the Barclays' offer having dropped to stand at more than €10 billion (£6.9 billion) less than the RBS consortium bid.

ABN had originally backed the Barclays offer, but last month the bank's chief executive Rijkman Groenink told a meeting of investors that the bid was "too low".

The Dutch bank had previously said that it had decided to refrain from recommending either of the two takeover offers for the company to its shareholders.

Company bosses stressed on September 16th that Barclays' offer supported ABN's objective of keeping itself intact, but acknowledged that the consortium bid was "clearly superior" financially.

Analysts say Barclays will now face questions about what its future strategy will be in the wake of its failure to secure ABN.

Commenting on the matter today Barclays chief executive John Varley said: "I thank Barclays shareholders and employees for their overwhelming support for this transaction over the past months.

"Barclays has strong momentum and I am confident that we will continue to deliver significant growth in the coming years," he added.