Feb 14 - Leading British companies could be given two years to increase the number of female directors or face quotas as part of a government review looking to increase the number of women sitting on company boards.

Angela Ahrendts, of fashion group Burberry, is one of the few women to make it to the top of UK-listed companies.

The proposal is among several measures being considered by a government panel looking into why there are so few women on the board of UK-listed companies.

The panel, headed by former trade minister Mervyn Davies, will meet later on Monday to debate its final recommendations in a report to be published shortly, a spokesman for the Department of Business said.

Countries across Europe are considering quotas to tackle the low numbers of women in company boardrooms.

Deutsche Bank CEO Josef Ackermann has faced criticism in Germany after joking that the inclusion of women on the bank's all-male executive board would make it "more colourful and prettier".

Female directors take up just 135 of the 1,076 directorships on boards of FTSE 100 companies in Britain, according to a report by Cranfield School of Management.

Angela Ahrendts, of fashion group Burberry, Alison Cooper at Imperial Tobacco, mining company Anglo American CEO Cynthia Carroll and long-serving Pearson boss Marjorie Scardino are some of the few women to make it to the top of UK-listed companies.

Statutory quotas are just one of a raft of measures being considered. Other proposals include voluntary targets, as well as creating an academy of company chairmen to mentor female executives to take up boardroom positions.

The review is also examining why women may be put off taking up directorships and is considering more transparency for recruiters and headhunters when looking for people to fill boardroom positions.

The Institute of Directors (IoD), an independent body representing senior company figures, opposed quotas in its submission to the panel.

"We simply think that boards and shareholders should be able to form a board based on the merits of an individual and the requirements of the company," said Roger Barker, head of corporate governance at the IoD.

The IoD said there was no "quick-fix solution" to a complex problem, but that companies could cast their nets wider when appointing non-executives, rather than just relying on figures with executive experience.

By Caroline Copley
(Additional reporting by Keith Weir; Editing by Steve Addison)