Sales from its core division came in at £813m, up from £706m in the previous quarter, but well beneath the £1.4bn in the fourth quarter of last year.While there was little fresh news on the company's refinancing talks with its banks and bondholders, Marconi said it had agreed to a hike in interest payments and had put £850m of its £1.4bn cash pile aside to aide the restructuring."This [£850m] is cash that will be repaid as part of the restructuring proposal and we'll park it over there in a safe bank account where everyone can see it. It also said it would book an exceptional gain of about £700m mainly from disposals.. Pensioners and angry customers clashed with the directors of Barclays Bank yesterday as the row over its chief executive's gargantuan pay packet boiled over at the annual general meeting. His package includes annual pension contributions of £990,000.Sir Peter Middleton, the chairman, hit back, saying: "If I can spare his blushes, [Mr Barrett] is a very successful CEO This, alas, is not a secret. The market in which he operates is the toughest there is."He added: "I personally will be very happy if he gets every penny of [his bonus] because if that happens the business will have done extremely well."Sir Nigel Rudd, head of Barclays' remuneration committee, said the board needed to retain Mr Barrett's services because it did not wish to recruit a replacement from outside Barclays, and Mr Barrett was grooming "four or five" possible successors.

"We would rather not go outside again," Sir Nigel said.John Stewart, the deputy chief executive, also came under fire for a bonus tied to the integration of the Woolwich building society. "You have all benefited from [the integration], much more than he has," Sir Peter told the meeting.Much of the ire came from former employees disgruntled by the huge gap between their pensions and those likely to be received by the directors. As Sir Peter offered sympathy, saying that he himself was a pensioner, one politely reminded him: "You are also earning more than £400,000 a year."Separately, Barclays' French unit was placed under investigation by a magistrate following an inquiry into money laundering allegations The move did not result from the discovery of new evidence.. AstraZeneca has been forced to launch new safety trials of one its most important new drugs as its application for regulatory approval in the United States has ran into delays. Beyond a certain dose, side effects include a potentially fatal muscle wasting condition, and recent trials have involved giving patients progressively larger dosages.

It is understood the company is to try different doses on different patients to get a clear idea of the level at which the side effects kick in.Crestor is the latest in a class of cholesterol-lowering drugs called statins, which included Bayer's Baycol. Bayer's product was withdrawn last year after being linked with about 100 deaths.Some analysts expressed concern yesterday that the FDA could decide to wait for the conclusions of these new studies, which is likely to extend the delay into next year.Meanwhile, Percy Barnevik, the fallen hero of Swedish business, was re-elected as chairman of AstraZeneca yesterday, after being forced to make a humiliating public apology over the pension scandal that has engulfed him.Board members rallied to support Mr Barnevik, who was forced last month to return more than half of a £61m pension he had paid himself on retiring as chief executive of ABB, the Swiss-Swedish engineering group where he made his name. The award had never been disclosed to the ABB board.Mr Barnevik said: "AstraZeneca operates high standards of corporate governance and its policies and approach are spelt out clearly. I am sorry that events in recent weeks regarding another company have led some to question the suitability of my continuing as chairman."Sir Peter Bonfield, a long-standing AstraZeneca board member, was appointed senior non-executive director last month to act as a conduit for shareholder concerns..