Barclays (UK:BARC) (BCS) said Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Citigroup Inc. (C) Portuguese credit card business.

Under the terms of the deal, Barclays will acquire around 400,000 credit card accounts, with gross assets of roughly 644 million euros ($942 million), of which substantially all relate to receivables. |

Barclays said it will integrate the business into its existing Barclays Portugal unit and, over time, will rebrand existing Citi cards as Barclaycard. Completion of the deal is expected to occur before the end of 2009. Barclays did not disclose financial terms of the deal, though previous reports have indicated it would pay less than $100 million.

The deal is expected to complete before the end of the year subject to clearance from regulatory authorities. Citi cards are expected to be rebranded under the Barclaycard name.

Unlike some of its rival British banks, Barclays has successfully avoided state control, despite a ferocious global financial crisis that erupted back in 2007.

Earlier Tuesday, U.K. newspaper The Times reported that Barclays was