LONDON (Reuters) - The Lloyd's of London insurance (LOL.UL: Quote, Profile, Research) market said on Wednesday the chances of it making a profit in 2005 were small after it faced claims of around 2.9 billion pounds from the costliest U.S. hurricane season.

The world's largest insurance market raised its net loss estimate from Hurricane Katrina, the insurance industry's costliest event on record, to 1.9 billion pounds from 1.4 billion pounds.

"The losses may be larger but Lloyd's is financially strong and we can take it in our stride," Finance Director Luke Savage told Reuters in an interview.

The 317-year old market, which was brought to the brink of collapse in the 1990s after a series of storms and disasters and a buildup of unresolved claims, expects to be able to meet all its liabilities and said none of its 62 syndicates or mini-insurers had been made insolvent from the storms.

The devastating trio of U.S. storms, which killed more than one thousand, displaced over 1 million and bulldozed the U.S. Gulf coast, are expected to cost the insurance industry around $79 billion (46 billion pounds).

A growing list of insurers and reinsurers have scrapped profit forecasts following the season, including Hannover Re (HNRGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research) and Swiss Re (RUKN.VX: Quote, Profile, Research).

Munich Re (MUVGn.DE: Quote, Profile, Research), the world's largest reinsurer, has estimated a net loss of 750 million euros (513 million pounds) from the U.S. storms.

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