* MONITISE: Monitise has offered its backing for a takeover of the British financial services technology company by Fiserv after the U.S. financial technology provider made an improved offer that values the firm at about 75 million pounds.

* PAYSAFE: Payments processing company Paysafe Group has backed a 3 billion pound ($3.9 billion) takeover offer from a consortium of funds managed by Blackstone and CVC Capital Partners, the latest in a string of deals in the sector.

* UK BOOKMAKERS: British finance minister Philip Hammond has blocked government attempts to curb high-stakes gambling machines commonly found in betting shops in order to preserve tax revenues, the Daily Mail newspaper reported on Saturday.

* TULLOW: The leaders of Tanzania and Uganda laid a foundation stone on Saturday for the construction of a $3.55 billion-crude export pipeline that would pump Ugandan oil for international markets. Total is one of the owners of Ugandan oilfields, alongside China's Cnooc and Britain's Tullow Oil.

* SAINSBURY: Britain's second-biggest supermarket chain, Sainsbury's, is considering cutting 1,000 head office jobs as part of a drive to save 500 million pounds ($652 million) in costs, the Sunday Telegraph newspaper reported.

* UK REAL ESTATE: The directors of small British construction businesses are lending them more money to plug a funding gap as banks set tighter lending criteria and major contractors delay payments, a survey showed on Monday.

* GOLD: Gold held steady near two-week lows on Monday, with the dollar remaining supported by expectations of monetary tightening in the United States following stronger-than-expected jobs data last week.

* LME COPPER: London Metal Exchange copper on Monday fell half a percent $6,343 a tonne by 0137 GMT, having earlier jumped to $6,430.50, less than $10 below its most recent-two year high. Volumes were roughly treble the average for early Asia, around 5500 lots.

* The UK's top share index enjoyed its best week so far in 2017 as gains among big defensive overseas earners on Friday outweighed falls for homebuilding stocks. Britain's blue chip FTSE 100 index ended the session up 0.5 percent at 7,511.71 points.

* For more on the factors affecting European stocks, please click on: cpurl://apps.cp./cms/?pageId=livemarkets

TODAY'S UK PAPERS

> Financial Times

> Other business headlines Multimedia versions of Reuters Top News are now available for: * 3000 Xtra : visit http://topnews.session.rservices.com * For Top News : http://topnews.reuters.com (Reporting by Sanjeeban Sarkar in Bengaluru)