From correspondents in Berlin, Germany, 05:00 PM IST

Germany's finance ministry said Sunday it is working on a new attempt to save Hypo Real Estate (HRE), the German mortgage lender caught up in the wave of Western bank failures.

'We'll have to see how we can sweep together the pieces that have been dumped on our doorstep,' spokesman Torsten Albig said a day after HRE disclosed the collapse of a hoped-for government-backed bail-out.

The German government and the banking industry had announced Sep 29 a 35-billion-euro ($50 billion) set of guarantees to enable HRE to resume short-term lending.

But newspaper reports said the deal unravelled when several leading banks pulled out after discovering that HRE's troubles were more serious than first thought.

A spokesman for HRE, which is listed on Germany's blue chip stock index DAX, said the company was 'working around the clock' with regulators, investors, shareholders and the government.

(Staff Writer, © IANS)