The US government has requested a three week delay on the hearing against Swiss bank UBS and its refusal to hand over the identities of 52,000 offshore account holders to the US Internal Revenue Service. The reason behind the request is to allow for a more suitable arrangement but the US Department of Justice has insisted that any agreement will require the bank to hand over details on a 'significant number' of clients, reports the Financial Times. UBS announced last week that if the hearing favoured the US government then it would place a 'block' on the identities under attack, as imparting information regarding its clients goes against Swiss banking secrecy laws. A threat of monetary sanctions then followed from the DoJ which said a separate case would then be filed if UBS did not comply with a possible court order to reveal the names. UBS agreed to shell out $780m (£481m) to the US in February in an out-of-court settlement. Later on in the month, the civil case against UBS was filed when it refused to hand over details of thousands of off-shore account holder to the IRS.