London - Britain's Barclays Bank Wednesday announced a major fund-raising move to shore up its finances, asking for a cash injection of 4.5 billion pounds (9 billion dollars) from wealthy overseas investors.

Barclays said a number of "sovereign wealth funds" and foreign groups had agreed to pump money into the bank, including the Qatar Investment Authority and Japanese banking giant Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, in return for discounted shares.

Existing shareholders will also be offered the chance to buy shares under the scheme. Several British banks have in the past few months sought to correct their balance sheets through rights issues in an attempt to offset losses resulting from the credit crunch. (dpa)