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LAGOS (Reuters) - Nigeria's central bank offered $600 million at its foreign exchange auction on Monday, 200 percent more than its regular offer, to calm the market and help strengthen the naira, traders said.

The naira has consistently depreciated at the regulator's forex window since the re-introduction of the Wholesale Dutch Auction System on July 13, due to low dollar supply against mounting demand.

Traders said the continuous weakening of the naira in the official market triggered panic-buying by some businesses which feared the local currency could weaken further and hurt their operations.

Demand for dollars at the twice-weekly auctions had peaked at $1.19 billion last week, pushing the naira down to 149.75 a dollar from 147.38 the previous week.

The naira also slipped on the interbank market to 156.20 on Friday from 152 per dollar on Tuesday.