THE HAGUE, May 20, 2009 (AFP) - The head of nationalised Dutch bank ABN Amro said in an interview published Wednesday he wants a fresh capital injection from the government.

"We cannot continue if the state does not help us and if (the European Commission) does not authorise such assistance," ABN Amro executive director Gerrit Zalm told the newspaper Het Financieele Dagblad.

He did not disclose the amount requested.

Questioned by AFP, the Dutch finance ministry would not confirm the report, saying only that "consultations are under way."

In the interview, Zalm complained that while the Dutch state had committed large sums to ABN Amro and the Dutch banking unit of Fortis, which have merged, "all of it went to Fortis" in Brussels.

"We have not received a euro."

Fortis Holding, a Belgian-Dutch venture hard hit by the financial crisis, was broken up in October last year when most of its Dutch operations were nationalised, as was ABN Amro, at a cost of nearly 17 billion euros ($33.84 billion).

Fortis's insurance operations in the Netherlands, which were also nationalised in October, are managed by a separate company, ASR Verzekeringen. The merged group in the Netherlands is to continue under the name ABN Amro and to be headed by Zalm, a former Dutch finance minister.

The merger now needs the approval of the European Union's executive commission and the Dutch central bank.