Under the agreement, Allianz will buy Zurich Financial Service's stakes in the ventures -- one in life insurance, the other in general insurance -- that it owns jointly with Uni-President Enterprises Corp, a Taiwanese food company. The German insurance giant said it also will take management control of the two companies.

Though Allianz declined to disclose terms of the transaction, the two acquisitions are relatively small ones for the world's largest insurer. The first, Eagle Star President Life Insurance Co, generates 110 million marks ($58.8 million) in annual premium income, while the second, Eagle Star President General Insurance Co, has premiums of about 85 million marks a year. In comparison, Allianz pulled in 90.4 billion marks in premiums last year.

But the deal comes on the heels of two biggerpurchases by Allianz in the past month, a sign the German insurance giant is eager to make good on its plans to push further into Asia and the US. In early May, the German insurance giant announced plans to buy First Life Insurance Co, Korea's fourth-largest life insurer, with $1.4 billion in annual premiums. Two weeks ago it also agreed to pay $540 million for the roughly 75 per cent of Life USA Holding Inc it doesn't already own. All three acquisitions help fill gaps in areas in which Allianz hasn't been a major player.

``What's clear is that Allianz is going through a program of buying up life insurers,'' said Tom Bennett, insurance analyst at Paribas Capital Markets in London. ``Given the price wars in nonlife insurance, which is still Allianz's biggest business, the only way for Allianz to make significant progress is to invest its excess capital in new businesses and make it work harder.'' With an estimated 50 billion marks in excess capital, Allianz has plenty of ammunition for more acquisitions,according to analysts. At a news conference two weeks ago, chief executive Henning Schulte-Noelle repeated that he wants to propel the German insurer into the ranks of the top five in the world's most important markets, particularly the US and the UK in Asia, which now only makes up a sliver of Allianz's worldwide business, the company wants to boost premiums from less than 1 per cent to eventually 5 per cent of total premiums.

Its latest acquisition is Allianz's first foray into Taiwan, apart from reinsurance contracts with direct insurers already operating there. The 50 per cent stakes in the joint ventures, to be renamed Allianz President General and Allianz President Life, make Allianz an instant ``middle-sized player'' in Taiwan, the company said. Taiwan's nonlife market has annual volume of $2.3 billion, while its life market has volume of $13.2 billion.Zurich Financial Service's Eagle Star uni, which formed the joint ventures before the Swiss insurer took it over last year, is pulling out of thembecause of its new parent company's existing partnerships in Taiwan.

--The Wall Street Journal