Brussels - Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme faced growing calls to quit Thursday after his office was accused of trying to influence a court ruling on the sale of the country's troubled Fortis bank.

"Leterme wobbles" read the front-page headline of leading Flemish daily De Standaard.

"Leterme torpedos himself" said the French-language daily Le Soir.

In September, his government announced a joint rescue plan for Fortis, one of the first European victims of the global financial crisis, with the Netherlands and Luxembourg. The idea was to nationalize the bank and break it up into separate units in each of the three countries.

A month later, French banking giant BNP Paribas said it would take over the majority of Fortis's operations in Belgium and Luxembourg for 14.5 billion euros (19.7 billion dollars).

But following a challenge from some 2,000 shareholders, a court in Brussels last Friday ordered a 65-day freeze on the sale of Fortis.

Media reports said one of the judges, Christine Schurmans, received telephone calls and was visited at home on the day the ruling was issued.

And Leterme, who assumed office at the helm of a five-party, right-of-centre coalition nine months ago, has since admitted in a letter to his justice minister that an aide had tried to find out more about the court ruling, sparking outrage from the opposition and criticisms from within his own coalition.

"There has to be an absolute division of power. We don't live in a Banana Republic," said Herman De Croo, a liberal who supports the government, was quoted as saying in De Standaard.

"With his confession, Leterme has written his own resignation letter," said Renaat Landuyt of the opposition socialists.

Leterme insists he had not exerted any pressure on judges involved in the Fortis dossier.

Meanwhile, BNP Paribas has said it will no longer proceed with its plan to buy a stake in Fortis.

"Given the ruling by the Brussels Court of Appeal on December 12th, 2008, the acquisition of a stake by BNP Paribas in Fortis Banque cannot proceed as initially planned," the Paris-based concern said in a statement published on its website Thursday.

BNP Paribas also called off an extraordinary shareholders meeting which had been set for Friday to vote on the Fortis takeover.

Leterme, a Christian Democrat, has ruffled many feathers since becoming prime minister, particularly among French-speaking Walloons who fear that his plans to devolve more powers to Belgium's regions will deprive them of state funds.

But political analysts say the Leterme government is unlikely to fall until the Fortis issue is resolved.

On Wednesday, government coalition parties agreed to set up a parliamentary commission tasked with looking into the case. (dpa)