Bears prowled Europe's bourses again yesterday, swiping at insurers after more bad news from Swiss Life and Aegon, and sending benchmark indices near six-year lows as the ECB's rate cut disappointed.

Sluggish US retail sales and a surprise jump in jobless claims there were also eyed by investors anxious about sliding Wall Street stocks, while continuing uncertainty about a timetable for possible war in Iraq kept up the selling pressure on both sides of the Atlantic.

Speculation was rife about a news conference by President Bush scheduled for 0100 GMT about "successes in the war against terrorism" and his determination to disarm Baghdad.

By 1711 GMT, with most bourses closed except for Frankfurt's DAX, the FTSE Eurotop 300 was down 0.9 per cent at 739 points, threatening to beat its lowest close since January 21, 1997, when it ended at 744.85 points.

The narrower DJ Euro Stoxx 50 dropped 1.7 per cent and the DJ Stoxx insurance index tumbled 5.3 per cent to 119.7 points, whacked to its lowest since April 1995.

"There is a very negative mindset out there and the bears have got plenty of ammunition at the moment, whether it's on the geopolitical scene, on the economic front or individual companies that are doing very badly, " said Nigel Cobby, managing director of European equities at J.P. Morgan in London.

"A rate cut has been discounted... So we're back to looking at the individual companies coming out with numbers and there are enough poor numbers to keep the bears nicely fed and feeling like they can sell more stock."

Insurers bore the brunt, on worries that they will become forced sellers of equities to maintain solvency levels.

Swiss Life shocked investors by warning its 2002 loss would be twice as wide as analysts expected, sending its shares down 11.9 per cent even while the insurer insisted it had wiped the slate for a better 2003.

Blaming weak markets that pummelled its investments and spurred large write-offs, Switzerland's biggest life insurer said it saw a 2002 net loss of around 1.7 billion Swiss francs.

Dutch insurer Aegon was also on the ropes, losing 10.5 per cent after cutting its dividend and refraining from providing an outlook for 2003.

"The sector is feeding off itself as the bad news continues - the lower the sector goes, the more people worry about what that's doing to their assets," said David Thwaites, European strategist at BNP Paribas.

Shares in UK financial services group Old Mutual were also among Europe's biggest decliners, shedding 7.8 per cent after it said it was placing new shares to raise £36 million, in order to fund payments relating to a US management subsidiary.

Other tumbling blue chips included French-American media group Vivendi Universal, which shed 4.3 per cent to close at €12.4 in Paris - then posted a whopping €23.3 billion net loss for 2002, France's biggest corporate annual loss and greater even than France Telecom's €20.7 billion loss announced on Wednesday.

But Paris also had its share of brighter spots including utilities group Suez which vaulted 3.7 per cent after it reported a narrower-than-expected net loss and said it reduced net debt by 7.2 per cent.

French plug and switch maker Schneider Electric was also among top blue-chip gainers in Europe, up 4.9 per cent after it clawed back to net profit in 2002 and said it aimed to swell margins this year despite shaky market conditions.

And Havas, the world's sixth biggest advertising group, jumped 13.5 per cent after announcing it returned to profit last year and just beat a promised rise in operating margin.

Amid individual share price moves, a war in Iraq remained at the front of investors' list of concerns.

Amid yesterday's developments, China backed a statement by France, Russia and Germany vowing to block a UN resolution authorising war on Iraq, but the United States said Baghdad had just days left to accept peaceful disarmament.

"Cash positions have been rising in recent weeks because everyone is nervous ahead of a possible war in Iraq. It is not certain that it will be a short and sharp war as in 1990/91," said Henning Kelch, a European fund manager at Commerz Asset Managers, based in Germany.