AFP - France's BNP Paribas cleared a major hurdle on Tuesday in a battle to control Belgium's biggest lender as Fortis shareholders backed its plans to buy the group's former Belgian banking arm.

Fortis shareholders approved the deal with 73 percent in favour at a rowdy meeting in the northern city of Ghent that saw dissenters halt the session twice and storm out ahead of the vote in protest.

Although the deal still faces another vote on Wednesday in the Dutch city of Utrecht, approval at the Ghent meeting had been seen as crucial for the sale of 75 percent of Fortis Bank to BNP Paribas.

However, approval in the second vote might not end months of legal wrangling over the messy break-up of the Fortis parent company after the financial crisis drove it to the brink of collapse last year.

With some shareholders up in arms at the sale of the group's former choice asset to BNP, further legal action can not be ruled out.

Some minority shareholders have lobbied hard to block the sale of Fortis Bank, the parent company's former Belgian banking arm that was taken over by the Belgian government.

Opponents of the deal were dealt a blow hours ahead of the vote when a Belgian court rejected their request for some shareholders' rights to be suspended, which would have strengthened their hand.

Many mom and pop shareholders in Fortis, which was once one of the bluest of Benelux blue chips, have seen their investments all but wiped out since the group was carved up, depriving the parent company of its main assets.

Opponents of the sale to BNP have said Belgium is in danger of losing control of its major national enterprises, after electrical utility Electrabel was taken over by GDF-Suez of France.

"Only in Belgium do we sell the jewels for a song," said lawyer Mischael Modrikamen, who is representing minority shareholders opposed to the deal.

"Fortis' sale is one too many," said Pierre Nothomb, who runs a consultancy advising shareholders.

Modrikamen, who has been representing minority shareholders, led the walk-out to protest the inclusion of shareholders in the vote who picked up Fortis stock on the cheap after it had been stripped of its main assets.

Such new shareholders, which he argues includes many hedge funds, were considered to be more likely to back the BNP deal because they have less to lose than nearly wiped out long-time investors.

The vote is the latest chapter in a months-long topsy-turvy saga that has seen the group brought to the brink of collapse and broken up by the Dutch, Belgian and Luxembourg governments.

The Dutch government nationalised Fortis Holdings Dutch bank-assurance activities and Belgium took over Fortis Bank while proposing to sell a 75 percent stake to BNP Paribas.

The dispute helped bring down Belgium's coalition government in December and the government has twice revised the deal with BNP Paribas in an effort to get it accepted by shareholders.

The second version of the deal was proposed after a shareholders' meeting on February 11 voted against a BNP Paribas takeover of Fortis Bank.