"They can't have found anything new after five months," it said.Both sides also said the other's offer risked being blocked by the Office of Fair Trading.Whitbread admitted it may be required to reduce its concentration in certain licensing districts to meet OFT concerns. Punch dismissed the idea Whitbread had unearthed new savings. A switch of recommendation by Allied would also generate a pounds 25m fee to Whitbread.David Reed, Whitbread's director of corporate affairs, said: "Whitbread is more interested in doing a deal than in going to court."Meanwhile, Punch again advertised its resolve in its bid for the pubs. "If a little tweaking of the offer is necessary we can do that," said its spokesman.Mr Reed said: "We're not playing the `mine's bigger than yours' game."The upping of Whitbread's earlier pounds 2.3bn paper offer on Friday followed a search by the group's pub operators for additional cost savings, said to have boosted the deal's annual cost savings from pounds 100m within three years to at least pounds 125m. One needs to look at what the Whitbread shareprice does and how Punch reacts to that."Whitbread is not ruling out taking Allied to court for "loss of transaction", which could result in a significant damages award, if it backed Punch's bid. A strengthening of its shares today would put pressure on Punch Taverns to further raise its bid to secure a recommendation from Allied's board.An Allied insider said yesterday: "There will be meetings on Monday [today]. [Today] is an important day," said a Whitbread spokesman.Whitbread's shares closed up 9p at 1001p in thin trading.

It's not like every fund manager who would make a decision was there. The one thing we agree on is that Allied Domecq shareholders will be the real judges of value."The City failed to deliver a clear verdict on Whitbread's raised offer on Friday, which came within an hour of the market's close "There was Wimbledon and it was Henley Friday. We have to meet their criticisms because they have an effect on the share price."A spokesman for Punch said: "It's a tired response from tired people. "Whitbread's offer is also underpinned by our legally binding contract with Allied Domecq. Allied Domecq shareholders are the real judges of value." A Whitbread spokesman added: "Punch has tried to cast doubt on the wisdom of what we're doing.

Whitbread attacked Punch's suggestions that its bid would "vandalise" shareholder value. It accused Punch of creating uncertainty in an attempt to depress its shares. "Whitbread is confident this offer is creating value for the company and will be earnings enhancing in the first full financial year after completion," the company said in a statement. ALLIED DOMECQ will today decide whether to recommend Punch Taverns' raised pounds 2.875bn cash offer for its pub estate after Whitbread yesterday sought to bolster its share price to support its recommended cash and shares bid worth pounds 2.83bn Punch's offer expires at midnight. the announcement sent gold to a 20-year low of $257.15Meanwhile, the World Gold Council will today submit a petition against the plans, while in South Africa, President Thabo Mbeki criticised the United Kingdom's decision, saying its negative impact on gold prices threatened south Africa's embattled mines.Under the rules of the auction, the Bank of England will accept bids from members of the London Bullion Market Association and from central banks and institutions who hold gold accounts at the Bank.The bids, which must come in US dollars for multiples of 400 troy ounces, can be submitted up to 11.30 am on Tuesday.. Kim Rose, who runs a jewellery business in Southampton will today launch an action in the High Court to try and block the sale. He accuses the Government of acting irresponsibly and is taking out an injunction to try to stop the auction, which is due to begin tomorrow.Mr Rose is hoping to persuade a judge to postpone the auction pending a full hearing."The price of gold has already dropped and it's in danger of dropping more once the sale goes ahead," he said."It just doesn't make good business sense to sell gold at the lowest prices for 25 years and invest 40 per cent of the profits into an unstable euro."I believe the Government has handled this in a reckless and irresponsible manner."Concern over the handling of the sale has sparked a fall in the gold price which has wiped $650m off the value of the UK's gold reserves. GOVERNMENT PLANS to auction 415 million tonnes of the UK's gold reserves will today face a double challenge from a legal action being brought by a jeweller and lobbying from the World Gold Council.