The Takeover Panel said the ABT consortium - made up of Apax Partners Barclays Capital and the Tchenguiz family trust - and London and

The Takeover Panel said the ABT consortium - made up of Apax Partners, Barclays Capital and the Tchenguiz family trust - and London and Regional Properties, owned by the developers Richard and Ian Livingstone, had until close of play on 14 October to "put up or shut up". Somerfield, which also owns the Kwik Save brand, has been under siege since March when the Icelandic retailer Baugur made a £1.04bn bid approach backed by the property investor Robert Tchenguiz, who said he might also be interested in buying the UK's fifth-biggest supermarket chain. Nationwide said it was "absolutely not" asking policyholders to acknowledge any such damage and that the claims were "unfounded".. The two rival bidders for Somerfield were given a four-week deadline yesterday to make an offer for the supermarket group or walk away. Mississippi's attorney general, Jim Hood, has begun legal proceedings against five US insurers, including Allstate and National Mutual Insurance, alleging they are trying to avoid paying claims they are liable for.Mr Hood said on Thursday adjusters from the companies had tried to put pressure on hurricane survivors to sign forms acknowledging they sustained flood damage, which is not covered by homeowner insurance, so they could receive money for living expenses The insurers rejected the charge. Mr Allbaugh has said he has not lobbied the government or Fema for work related to the disaster on behalf of his clients.Another former Fema director, James Lee Witt, has registered as a lobbyist for the insurance company Allstate. He is helping it lobby the government to set up a fund to ease insurers' burdens from disaster claims.The insurance industry, which is facing a bill of about $60bn for claims, has already clashed with politicians over how much of the damage it must pay for.

Mr Allbaugh has also been a head of Fema.Kellogg Brown & Root and Shaw is a client of Mr Allbaugh, who has travelled to the region affected by the hurricane. All three companies have close links to the Bush administration and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema), the national body charged with handling the crisis, the total cost of which cost could reach $200bn (£110bn).The spotlight has fallen on the lobbyist Joe Allbaugh, a long-standing associate of President Bush and his former campaign manager. Its subsidiary, Kellogg Brown & Root, has been awarded a multimillion-dollar contract to rebuild naval bases in Louisiana and Mississippi.Bechtel, which has won major deals in Iraq, has also been awarded work in the area devastated by Hurricane Katrina, including providing short-term housing.The Louisiana-based engineering company, Shaw, has also been given a large mandate to rebuild its local area. The situation has prompted senators including Hillary Clinton to call for an independent watchdog to be set up to oversee contract awards. Halliburton, which used to be chaired by the vice-president, Dick Cheney, is doing much of the US government's work in Iraq. There are concerns that some of the early contracts have followed the pattern of reconstruction work in Iraq, where little or no competition has taken place. President George Bush made a sweeping promise yesterday to use billions of tax dollars to rebuild New Orleans. But there have already been charges on Capitol Hill over the way some reconstruction contracts have been awarded and the role lobbyists are playing in getting the cash divided up.

The decision to start building limousines and Minivans in China was seen as a significant move towards increasing DaimlerChrysler's presence in a country that is the world's fastest-growing car market.Industry experts predict that China will quadruple its vehicle-production capacity by the end of 2008.Last year DaimlerChrysler was forced to pull out of it partnerships with Mitsubishi in Japan and Hyundai in South Korea after incurring losses of more than €2bn.Motoring analysts said yesterday's announcement was a clear indication that the company was investing its hopes in China.. It has also obtained licences for the building of Mercedes cars and trucks in the country.R?er Grube, Daimler-Chrysler's China sales manager, said yesterday: "North-east Asia will be the biggest growth area for the automobile industry over the next 10 years,"A spokesman for DaimlerChrysler in Germany denied reports that the company plans to increase its investments in India.The car maker has built and sold its "Peking Jeep" vehicles in China since 1989. From the end of 2005, DaimlerChrysler will build its Chrysler 300c limousines at its Peking Mercedes plant now under construction. The initiative is part of a drive to treble its sales in the country over the next three years. The car maker plans to build its Minivan series for the Chinese and Taiwanese markets at a joint production plant with China Motor and Fujian Motor Industry in South-west China from next year.