Barclays chief executive John Varley denied yesterday that he has been outsmarted by his Royal Bank of Scotland counterpart Sir Fred Goodwin in the tug-of-war for ABN Amro.

Speaking to journalists after Barclays' annual meeting in London, Varley was asked if this was the case but responded with a simple "no". He added that ABN Amro told Barclays in advance of the Dutch bank's decision to open its books to the RBS-led consortium, and insisted he was comfortable with that decision.

"We have an agreed offer and I am not sure what anyone else is offering; it is not clear," he said. "They (ABN Amro) will have a lot of questions to ask (RBS)."

Varley told the meeting that there was a "stark contrast" between the two approaches. Barclays planned to "build one of the best banks in the world", while the RBS consortium "planned the deconstruction, into heaven knows how many parts, of one of the biggest banks in Europe."

"It's very clear what ABN Amro want. And I want ABN, alongside Barclays, to be a founding partner of what will be one of the great banking enterprises and great banking stories of the 21st century."

In response to one investor's query about the price and whether Barclay's could afford it, Varley said the board's members "have our feet on the ground and our shareholders in mind.

"We are absolutely clear that it is the interests of our shareholders and we are determined to proceed," he added.

Chairman Marcus Agius, meanwhile, played down the threat that Barclays could be vulnerable to a takeover if its bid fails. "I have no intention of anyone taking advantage of us in that respect," he told one investor.

"Often companies propose mergers because they have run out of ideas. There is no shortage of ideas at Barclays and we are entering these discussions from a position of strength."

To resounding cheers, one Continued from Page 34 investor said that if a preda- tor does emerge, Barclays should "see them off like the Marks & Spencer private shareholders did" in the case of retail entrepreneur Philip Green.

Varley told shareholders that a merged ABN-Barclays would continue to be listed on the London Stock Exchange, pay taxes in Britain and hold its annual meeting in London.

Barclays also came under scrutiny over the £22m in salary, shares and bonuses paid last year to investment banking chief Bob Diamond.

One outraged shareholder, citing one of last weekend's newspapers, noted that Diamond was "getting the combined salary of every High Court judge in the country", while another said all the directors were "paid too much".

Barclays defended Diamond's salary, saying that the wealth management and asset management division contributed nearly half of last year's £7.1bn pre-tax profits haul, with Barclays Global Investors alone making the group some £2bn a year.

Barclays human resources and remuneration committee chairman Sir Richard Broadbent said: "This is a world-class business and therefore we have to pay world-class compensation. Bob runs a business that contributed over £3bn towards pre-tax profits last year - that's an increase of more than 50% in two years."

Institutional investors appeared unfazed by the package, with only 6% of proxy votes cast against or abstaining in respect of the remuneration report.