March 19 (Reuters) - The following are the top stories on the business pages of British newspapers. Reuters has not verified these stories and does not vouch for their accuracy.

The Times

Klepierre made a 5 billion pound ($6.97 billion) takeover approach for Hammerson Plc, in a move that threatens to derail the British property company's proposed merger with Intu Properties Plc, but Hammerson rebuffed the bid almost immediately, arguing that it undervalued a group. http://bit.ly/2IApHmm

Dana Inc, the U.S. automotive group in talks to buy GKN's driveline division, is to seek a secondary listing in London as it bumps up its efforts to win over shareholders in the engineering group. http://bit.ly/2IxGc2q

The Guardian

Britain's biggest business lobby group Confederation of British Industry (CBI) is seeking to prevent the loss of as much as 1 billion euros in annual European funding for scientific research and technological development, which has been thrown into doubt by Brexit. According to a briefing paper seen by the Guardian, the CBI is calling for the government to state its intention to renew its membership of the EU framework programme for research and development after Brexit. http://bit.ly/2pouA9l

Ministers have been urged to bring forward their 2040 ban on new diesel and petrol car sales by a decade, a move which an environmental think tank said would almost halve oil imports and largely close the gap in the UK's climate targets. The Green Alliance said a more ambitious deadline of 2030 is also needed to avoid the UK squandering its leadership on electric cars. http://bit.ly/2pknJ0y

The Telegraph

Rolls-Royce is joining the race to build the next generation of energy storage "batteries" using the same material originally designed for hard-wearing contact lenses. Rolls-Royce said it will work with Superdielectrics, a research company, to use the material to challenge the dominance of traditional batteries. http://bit.ly/2pqiso2

The Government has been urged to use Brexit to slash red tape for small banks to boost competition and follow the deregulatory path set by the United States. Paul Lynam, the influential boss of challenger bank Secure Trust Bank said leaving the EU would enable Britain to level the field for smaller lenders and help break the dominance of the big five – Barclays, Lloyds, RBS, HSBC and Santander. http://bit.ly/2plVyOM

Sky News

Around 90 million pounds seized from dormant British bank accounts will be used to tackle racial inequality among jobseekers. The fund will be announced by Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday as part of a drive to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds into work. http://bit.ly/2Iz4Akj ($1 = 0.7175 pounds) (Compiled by Bengaluru newsroom; Editing by Peter Cooney)