London  - Britain's Barclays Bank has announced a rise of 15 per cent in pre-tax profits in the first quarter of 2009 despite steep losses from writedowns suffered as a result of last year's banking crisis.

The bank said in London Thursday that profits before tax came in at 1.37 billion pounds (2.07 billion dollars) between January and the end of March, an increase of 15 per cent compared with the same period last year.

Total income almost doubled to a record 8.15 billion pounds due to a strong performance at the group's investment banking arm.

Unlike some of its major rivals, Barclays refused to take part in the government's massive bail-out scheme last October, raising 7 billion pounds in funds instead from private Middle Eastern investors.

The strong results were achieved despite losses from write downs of 2.61 billion pounds and increased costs related to the bank's acquisition of parts of US bank Lehman Brothers last year. (dpa)