Bank of Scotland, whose approach NatWest has vigourously rejected, said the annual growth was after disposing of some NatWest units and compared with its own growth of around 15 percent in the past five years.The revenue target is net of any attrition, which chief executive Peter Burt declined to quantify. NatWest argues there will be significant revenue attrition because of the hostile nature of the offer.

Burt said the combined group's revenue growth would be around 10 or 11 percent. Burt said he would "prefer to have the support of NatWest board" for its offer but did not think it would fail to win the takeover battle without such an endorsement. "We have the most credible and attractive bid. I'm hoping that NatWest shareholders will recognise this," Burt told a news conference.

Bank of Scotland met with NatWest management last Friday topropose a friendly deal, signalling a softer line in an attempt to counter Royal Bank of Scotland's "friendlier" hostile bid.

But NatWest rejected Bank of Scotland's approach and said the apparent change of heart raised serious questions about the judgement of Bank of Scotland's management.

NatWest's disclosure of Bank of Scotland's approach and it scurt dismissal also reinforced market perceptions that NatWest would prefer an agreed deal with Royal Bank, whose share-and-loan note bid currently stands at 22.7 billion pounds. Burt described the meeting with NatWest as "cordial" but didnot say whether it had had further talks with NatWest.

Bank of Scotland bid 21.5 billion pounds for NatWest in lateSeptember, before raising it last month. Including a special dividend, its offer currently totals 25.8 billion pounds.