Centrica may decide to offer 4.0 billion pounds, as well as shares, for British Energy in order to woo the government in London, newspaper reports said on Monday. Centrica announced a week ago that it would consider an all-shares merger with British Energy should Centrica and French utility group EDF fail in a joint all-cash bid for the nuclear power operator, which is 35 percent owned by the British government. However the Financial Times said on Monday that Centrica was now looking at adding a cash portion of about 4.0 billion pounds to its proposal to win over Britain’s Labour government. The FT added: “Although Centrica does not have as much cash as EDF, it has relatively little debt on its balance sheet and a person close to the situation said … it would be possible for the group to make a cash-and-shares offer for British Energy.”