Berlin  - German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck on Sunday ruled out the creation of a "bad bank" to take toxic assets from the nation's major financial institutions.

Such a bank would need to be funded by at least 150-200 billion euros (198-260 billion dollars) of taxpayers' money, the minister told the newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

"How could I take such a proposal to the federal parliament," he asked. "The nation would think we've gone crazy."

Josef Ackermann, chief executive of Deutsche Bank, Germany's biggest lender, has called for such an institution that would allow banks to unload their bad assets and troubled loans.

Steinbrueck's comments came amid reports that Germany's leading banks and financial insitutions faced further losses totalling nearly 300 billion euros.

The news magazine Der Spiegel said the figure was based on a survey of 20 leading institutions by the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, and the financial watchdog Bafin.

The report said the banks, some of which suffered huge losses at the start of the credit crunch last autumn, had written off only about a quarter of their bad assets.

The finance ministry confirmed the survey, but declined to comment on the figures.

A "bad bank" would enable the ailing banks to make a new start by soaking up their problem debts and assets. Once the financial situation normalized the "bad bank" would seek to sell the assets.

But politicians and experts at the government's financial markets stabilization fund, Soffin, want the banks to bear the losses should the "bad bank" end up in debt when the markets return to normal.

Germany's ruling coalition has created a 400-billion-euro fund to provide loans and credit guarantees to financial institutions. It is aimed at restoring confidence among the banks so that they will resume lending operations to one another. dpa