The Abbey deal will create the world's eighth largest bank

Banco Santander Central Hispano, which is acquiring the UK lender in a �8.5bn deal, said profits including one-off charges rose 64% from �1.3bn last year.

Its profits were boosted by the sale of a 2.5% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland and a smaller stake in Vodafone.

The Spanish bank is due to complete the Abbey deal, which has been approved by both sets of shareholders, next month.

European growth

Spain's largest bank raised �577m from the sale of shareholdings in Royal Bank of Scotland, Vodafone and Japanese bank Shinsei.

Excluding these exceptional items, the bank's profits rose 21% to �1.6bn, beating analysts expectations.

The Spanish company said it had enjoyed strong growth in its core European retail banking operations, where profits rose 18% to �1.09bn.

It also saw growth in Latin America where profits topped �710m.

Banco Santander's acquisition of Abbey - formerly known as Abbey National - still has to be approved by UK and Spanish regulators.

Although it has yet to officially clear the deal, the UK's Financial Services Authority said earlier this month that it saw "no material impediments" to the acquisition.

Banco Santander recently announced that its chief financial officer, Francisco Gomez Roldan, would take over as Abbey chief executive.