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Berlusconi sees Italian bid for Alitalia in weeks
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But he said a home-grown takeover would still mean "painful" reductions in personnel at the loss-making airline, where trade unions rejected a bid by Air France-KLM because it involved job cuts.
The outgoing center-left government decided late on Tuesday -- in consultation with Berlusconi, who takes office next month -- to give the airline a 300 million euro ($475 million) emergency loan to keep it flying until a new buyer is found.
That risked angering the European Commission, which in the past has threatened court action and on Wednesday said it would quickly assess whether the loan broke EU state aid rules.
Alitalia bleeds more than a million euros a day and the loan is expected to stave off bankruptcy in the near-term.
"This has given Alitalia the means to survive a few months, time which will be used by a group of Italian entrepreneurs, aided by banks, professionals and airlines, to study Alitalia´s accounts," Berlusconi told an Italian radio station.
"After due diligence of three, four or five weeks, this new group will present a binding offer and take over the running of Alitalia, which will involve a painful reduction in personnel," said the 71-year-old media mogul.
He pinned responsibility for the withdrawal this week of Air France-KLM´s offer -- which he consistently opposed during the election campaign on the grounds that the flag carrier should stay in Italian hands -- on the "veto by trade unions."
"A company in Alitalia´s condition can´t keep making a loss; everyone has to show common sense, restructure the company and save as many jobs as possible, while making choices," he said.
"Nobody can guarantee the number of employees will remain at current levels in future," added Berlusconi, who beat the center-left in last week´s election by a bigger than expected margin.
HOT POTATO
The conservative leader has entrusted his close business adviser Bruno Ermolli with the Alitalia dossier, which is likely to be his first major headache as prime minister.
"We are inheriting a problem which it would have been better to leave to the current government, rather than us getting the hot potato," said Berlusconi.
"But I believe it´s in the national interest not to lose the flag-carrying airline, not just because of national pride but for valid economic reasons."
His sentiment was echoed by Salvatore Ligresti, who has been named as a potential Alitalia investor. The main shareholder in insurer Fondiara-Sai, Ligresti said giving the airline "a helping hand" was "correct and proper for the country."
Italian diplomats in Brussels explained details of the Alitalia loan to European Commission officials on Wednesday but Brussels had not yet been formally notified of the plan, the Commission´s transport spokesman Michele Cercone said.
The Commission denied there would be a conflict of interest if the next transport commissioner -- whose job would include overseeing the EU executive´s dealings with Alitalia -- were an Italian, as is likely.
Berlusconi is maneuvering to put Antonio Tajani, member of the European parliament for his own Forza Italia party, in the post in a reshuffle after Italy´s current Justice Commissioner, Franco Frattini, leaves to become Berlusconi´s foreign minister.
Alitalia shares closed down 3.3 percent to 0.5995 euros.
The carrier meets unions on Thursday and will hold a board meeting later that day.
Berlusconi has also suggested talks with Aeroflot after hosting the Russian president last week, but the airline -- which dropped out of an earlier Alitalia bid -- has sounded cautious.
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