Warren Buffett said he was approached twice to help American International Group Inc in the final days before the U.S. government rescued the insurer last September, Bloomberg said.

Two days later a second offer to participate in a transaction fell apart when a cash injection by a private group didn't materialize, he said.

It wasn't very tough, to resist an investment, Buffett said. They needed more than we could supply by far. I didn't know the extent of it, but I knew that.

He said the second offer involved an insurance transaction that might have occurred in conjunction with a big injection of funds by some group -- I don't even know who was necessarily in it -- on Sunday night, Buffett said. That never went anyplace.

AIG was first bailed out by the Federal Reserve with an $85 billion credit line shortly after investment bank Lehman Brothers was allowed to fail and brokerage Merrill Lynch sold itself to Bank of America Corp.

(Reporting by Ratul Ray Chaudhuri in Bangalore; Editing by Greg Mahlich)

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