As Merrill Lynch considers moving its headquarters from downtown to Midtown, city and state officials are increasing pressure on the financial giant to keep its operations in Lower Manhattan.

“I can say we’re going to work like hell to see that Merrill Lynch stays in Lower Manhattan, where it belongs,” the president of New York’s Empire State Development Corporation, Avi Schick, said today.

Merrill Lynch’s lease in the World Financial Center, located just west of the World Trade Center Site, expires in 2013. The firm is said to be considering a move to a new building on the site of Vornado Realty Trust’s Hotel Pennsylvania, just east of Pennsylvania Station.

The bank is also looking at two sites downtown – both in its existing building, owned by Brookfield Properties – and in one of the new World Trade Center towers, developed by Silverstein Properties.

The city, too, is pressuring Merrill Lynch to stay downtown. “We’re doing everything we reasonably can” to keep the firm in Lower Manhattan, Deputy Mayor Daniel Doctoroff told The New York Sun yesterday.

The speaker of the Assembly, Sheldon Silver, said he was meeting with the bank next week about its plans. Mr. Silver said both Mr. Schick and Governor Spitzer have already met with the firm.

“I would like to see whatever it takes to keep them here,” Mr. Silver said. “It is significant – it solidifies the next 50 years to keep Merrill Lynch.”