AIG management and Starr International==which has Mr. Greenberg as chairman==have been in a legal tussle since Mr. Greenberg was forced to leave as AIG chairman and chief executive officer when company operations came under investigation by New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer.

Mr. Spitzer has filed suit against AIG, charging the company with fraudulent accounting that he alleges involved Mr. Greenberg and other ousted executives.

Starr International was based in Bermuda in an AIG office building, but has since moved their offices to Dublin and elsewhere In Bermuda after the two firms clashed over control of company documents at the AIG site. Starr International, which has a Bermuda operating permit, is incorporated in Panama.

The AIG suit accuses Starr International of breach of contract and unjust enrichment. According to AIG, Starr International was attempting to convert AIG shares for its benefit, "in violation of a long-standing agreement" to retain and use the shares "for the benefit of AIG and AIG employees."

Starr International share assets have been used to provide deferred compensation to AIG top management and longtime employees and AIG said Starr International was bound to continue this arrangement.

AIG, in its action, said Starr International had indicated it intended to discontinue the deferred compensation program and use 270 million of its 290 million shares for the benefit of its directors, officers and others.

The "others" included fired AIG employees who refused to cooperate with state and federal authorities investigating AIG, the papers said.

A spokesman for Starr International, Howard Opinsky, said that AIG management had told their board members to resign from Starr International..

AIG, he said, was "trying to have it both ways" because they had announced they were going to unwind from Starr International and now wanted to use its assets for deferred compensation program. "AIG knows there's no contract obligation to continue this," he said.