LONDON, ENGLAND - AMERICAN International Group, the stricken US insurance group, has agreed to sell part of its minority interest in London's City Airport to its joint-venture partner, Britain's Sunday Telegraph reported.

AIG will sell a 25 per cent stake in the airport, the fastest-growing in Britain, for about 250 million pounds (S$656.99 million) to Global Infrastructure Partners (GIP), the newspaper said.

GIP is an investment fund whose shareholders are Credit Suisse and General Electric.

GIP and AIG Financial Products Corp, the arm of AIG which participated in the deal, paid just under 750 million pounds for the airport in December 2006, since when passenger numbers have soared and profit has almost doubled.

AIG, City Airport and GIP all declined to comment.

AIG, once the world's largest insurer, was forced to seek a US government rescue earlier this month after ratings agencies slashed its credit ratings, forcing it to post billions of dollars in collateral on derivatives contracts it insured.