Warren Buffett and his Berkshire Hathaway Inc. holding company may be in the market for parts of American International Group, the insurance and financial services giant that was rescued with an $85 billion federal bailout last week, according to a Reuters report Wednesday.

Buffett said on CNN that he’d expressed interest at mid-month in possibly buying pieces of AIG (NYSE: AIG) during emergency discussions involving regulators and insurance and financial services executives, talks that then centered on the fate of Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that has since filed for bankruptcy protection.

Berkshire, based in Omaha, Neb., has stakes in dozens of companies, but many of them are centered in the insurance and reinsurance realms. Reuters noted that Berkshire Hathaway had $44 billion in cash at the end of 2007, and is in the mood to spend some of it on the right transactions.

The company has already bought a $5 billion, roughly 9 percent stake in Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), positioning itself as the potential savior of Wall Street.

Edward Liddy, AIG’s newly appointed CEO, is expected to announce next week how the company plans to proceed and give some indication of what units may be up for sale to help pay back the Federal Reserve’s $85 billion loan, payable over two years with a steep 12 percent interest rate. Indications are that AIG’s personal lines, aircraft leasing and its American General life insurance and annuity unit could be among the subsidiaries it plans to sell.