S&N's famous brands include Newcastle Brown Ale

The UK's Takeover Panel issued a so-called "put up or shut up" notice after being approached by S&N.

The Carlsberg-Heineken consortium first approached S&N in October, and proposed a 750p-per-share offer in November.

But S&N, which brews Foster's and Kronenbourg, rejected the approach, describing it as "wholly inadequate".

Valuation row

Both sides welcomed the move by the Takeover Panel to issue a deadline.

S&N reiterated that the proposal from Carlsberg-Heineken was "wholly inadequate" and repeated its accusation that Carlsberg was trying to gain full control of Russian brewer BBH "on the cheap".

BBH is currently jointly-owned by S&N and Carlsberg.

Under the bid proposal put forward by Carlsberg and Heineken, S&N's assets would be split up between the two, with BBH going to Carlsberg.

The consortium said that the introduction of a timetable by the Takeover Panel would "focus all parties on the merits of our proposal".

"We urge S&N to open talks with us as soon as possible so we can agree the terms of a formal recommended offer," the consortium said.