It's not official.

Wells Fargo's plan to buy Wachovia would allow it to expand to the East Coast and pick up a dominant share of Colorado's banking market along the way.

But Citigroup, the financial company that thought it had purchased Wachovia's banking assets in a government-brokered deal, threw enough roadblocks in the way over the weekend to put Wells Fargo's purchase in doubt.

The Wall Street Journal reported Monday that federal officials were trying to broker a compromise that would carve up Wachovia's branch network. Wells Fargo would get Wachovia branches "in the Southeast and California," with Citibank getting offices "in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic regions," the newspaper said.

That implies the Colorado Wachovia branches would go to Wells Fargo, cementing its Colorado leadership. San Francisco-based Wells Fargo already controlled 17 percent of Colorado's $81 billion in deposits, according to federal data that dates to June 2007. World Savings Bank, which Wachovia acquired in 2006 to make its Colorado debut, had nearly 7 percent.

The division of Wachovia's branches as described in the Journal, however, may not appeal to Wells Fargo, as it adds offices in places it already has a presence - like California and Colorado - and doesn't gain any presence in the Northeast.

Wells Fargo said Friday it will buy the entirety of Wachovia for $15.1 billion. The deal is designed to pre-empt a sale arranged a week earlier by federal regulators in which Citigroup was to pay $2.1 billion for just Wachovia's banking operations, leaving behind the company's A.G. Edwards securities business and a mutual- fund subsidiary.

Citigroup, saying it had an exclusive deal, sought injunctions and filed a $60 billion lawsuit Monday against the two banks. By midday, however, all parties agreed to a standstill of all formal litigation activity. The standstill agreement will end at noon on Wednesday, unless extended.

"If this goes into a protracted legal battle, everybody loses," said Frederick Cannon, an analyst at Keefe, Bruyette & Woods in an interview with The Associated Press. "Wachovia is big enough that it would be a negative for the financial system. Given that situation, we will see a resolution pretty quickly."

Wire services contributed to this report.