The US is seeking more than $10 billion (€7.35 billion) from French bank BNP Paribas to settle criminal charges it violated sanctions on Iran, Sudan and Cuba, the Wall Street Journal reported Thursday.

Citing people familiar with the negotiations between the bank and the Justice Department, the newspaper said the two sides are still locked in talks, and that BNP wants to pay less than $8 billion.

Both numbers are far higher than earlier reports of less than $4 billion, and would far outpace the $1.9 billion British bank HSBC was fined in 2012 for routinely handling money transfers for countries under US sanction and for Mexican drug traffickers.

The Journal said a final resolution of the BNP case, which related to the bank's activity in 2002-2009, is "likely weeks away."

It said the two sides are still arguing over whether the bank, as part of its punishment, will be temporarily denied the right to transfer money into and out from the United States, an important part of any foreign bank's business in the US.

The report said Justice Department prosecutors continue to press the bank to plead guilty to the charges, which theoretically could risk its US banking license.

But in a separate case last week involving a bank helping thousands of Americans avoid taxes, Switzerland's Credit Suisse pleaded g€uilty to one felony charge and was fined $2.6 billion, but was allowed to keep its banking license.

That was the first time in 20 years a major bank had been convicted on US criminal charges.

Officials of BNP, the largest publicly traded French bank, could not be immediately contacted to comment on the Journal report.

Last year it set aside €789 million ($1.1 billion) to resolve the US sanctions case.

But in its first-quarter earnings report in late April, BNP noted "a possibility that the amount of the fines could be far in excess of the amount of the provision."

In May a person familiar with the negotiations said US prosecutors were insisting that it plead guilty to charges it did business with sanctioned parties in Iran, Sudan and elsewhere; pay a large fine; and fire 12 employees involved in the transactions.

But BNP chief executive Jean-Laurent Bonnafe had expressed grave concerns to regulators and prosecutors about lodging a guilty plea, in part because it could endanger the bank's license for operating in the US, according to the source.

BNP would likely be able to absorb such a large settlement without being destabilized.

At the end of the first quarter this year, the bank had €90 billion in shareholder equity, a €264 billion liquidity reserve and a strong 10.6 percent capital ratio.

But the fine could impact shareholders. Net income for the quarter was €1.7 billion, on €9.9 billion in revenues.