But some analysts said it wasn't clear any of the eight consortia would be able to meet the criteria set by the government for acquiring the company.

The consortia have members involved in fields ranging from insurance and real estate to mergers and acquisitions and general trading, the Financial Supervisory Commission said in a statement.

AXA of France and Metropolitan Life of the United States did not submit proposals despite the South Korean government's hopes they would participate.

The government is hoping to find a suitable buyer for the ailing insurance firm in the second round of bidding after it cancelled the first international auction in mid-May, saying bidders had failed to meet its criteria.

Those included the bidder's financial ability, the bidder's contributionto the domestic insurance industry and how much the bidder planned to pour in to help Korea Life, burdened by $2.4 billion in negative net worth, recover.

But analysts said they doubted whether participants in thesecond auction would meet the criteria either.

"While some of the members of the consortia are insurance companies, none of the firms leading them are insurers," said Kim Chul-jung, an analyst at Jardine Fleming Securities.

"People who'd been hoping for an inflow of foreign capital and foreign know-how into the domestic insurance sector may be a little disappointed," he said.

Some analysts questioned whether selling Korea Life to any of the eight bidders would result in any radical change in the domestic insurance sector in the near future.

"I have a strong suspicion that many of the participants are hoping to acquire Korea Life and then resell it for a profit in the future," said Kim Byong-sok, a senior analyst at Hannuri Investment Securities.

"The real-estate-linked participants areundoubtedly interested in Korea Life's real-estate assets," he said.

The consortia for the second auction are led by AMCOService Corp, Novecon Financial Ltd and Global Asset Incorporated (GAI) from the United States, Regent Pacific and DMK-SPE from Hong Kong and Hanwha Group, Myungsung and Shindongyang Industry Corp of Korea, the Financial watchdog said.

AMCO's consortium consisted of U.S. Real estate group Cushman & Wakefield and Prudential of the United States.

Novecon included a foreign insurance company and real estate company which both declined to be identified and financial investment firm Tucker & Associates, it said.

The financial watchdog said it could not confirm the companies involved in the GAI consortium.

The Regent Pacific consortium consisted of Impala Capital, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board and Regent Korea.

The DMK-SPE consortium involved Eastern Palace Holdings CoLtd which is run by Don M. Klabin, and Heritage Holdings Ltd.

The South Korean consortium led by Myungsunginvolved an unidentified Japanese life insurance company, a Japanese civil corporation and a Malaysian financial institution identified as Labuan Offshore Financial Services Authority, it said.

Shindongyang, an auto parts company, had a Japanese partner named International Technical Interchange Corp, it said.