By The Canadian Press

TORONTO - Nortel Networks Corp. extended the deadline to close the sale of its wireless network business to LM Ericsson of Sweden until Nov. 30 to allow for more time to meet the closing conditions of the deal, including regulatory approvals.

Ericsson has agreed to pay $1.13 billion for business, beating out a $650-million bid put forward by Nokia Siemens, a joint venture between Finland's Nokia Corp. (NYSE:NOK) and Germany's Siemens AG (NYSE:SI).

Nortel has been selling off its global operations piece by piece after seeking court protection from creditors in January.

Earlier this week, Nortel received a green light from the courts overseeing the company for the sale of its next-generation packet core network component assets to Japanese electronics manufacturer Hitachi Ltd. for US$10 million.

Included in the deal is software supporting data transfer over existing wireless networks and next-generation wireless technology and the non-exclusive licence of some patents and other intellectual property.