New Delhi, March 16 (IANS) The government has no plans to merge nationalised banks with India's largest state-run State Bank of India (SBI), a minister said Tuesday.

'At present there is no proposal before the government for merger of any nationalised bank with the State Bank of India,' Minister of State for Finance Namo Narain Meena said in his reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha.

SBI had earlier said that it was looking at absorbing six of its associate banks but was facing resistance from the employees union.

Meena said the government would not force banks for mergers, but will support those banks interested in merger.