Communications Minister Paolo Gentiloni denied on Wednesday that the government was seeking former premier Silvio Berlusconi's help in staving off a foreign bid for telecommunications giant Telecom Italia.
"The control of Telecom Italia by Mediaset (Berlusconi's private TV network group) or vice versa is forbidden under current media laws and under a planned reform (of those laws)," Gentiloni said in a statement.
He said that talk of Premier Romano Prodi's centre-left government being "open to Silvio Berlusconi saving Telecom Italia" was "pure fantasy and misleading".
"Excluding this scenario, I believe everything that pushes an industrial group like Mediaset towards diversification and new investments in the communications sector is positive for both the development of Mediaset and the country," the minister added.
The minister was referring to several media reports implying that the government was ready to enlist Mediaset's help in thwarting a bid for Telecom Italia by America's AT&T and Mexico's America Movil.
The Pirelli tyre group revealed this week that it was talking to the two foreign groups with a view to selling them 66% of its 80% stake in Olympia.
Olympia, which has an 18% stake in Telecom, is the holding company through which Pirelli controls the former state monopoly.
Although government spokesman Silvio Sircana subsequently said Telecom Italia board decisions had to be respected, even if it meant control passing to a foreign group, several ministers and other centre-left politicians expressed concern.
Gentiloni said he hoped solutions could be found that would "avoid letting Telecom Italia end up in foreign hands".
Several members of the centre-left governing coalition said on Wednesday that if Berlusconi - a billionaire media mogul as well as centre-right opposition chief - made a move on Telecom, it would increase his conflicts of interest.
"Nobody on the centre left is referring to Berlusconi as a potential saviour in the Telecom case. And if anyone has thought about Mediaset then they have forgotten that the conflict of interest issue must first be resolved," said the centrist Daisy party, of which Gentiloni is a member.
Green MP Tana de Zulueta said that "in a country like Italy where Mediaset enjoys a dominant position in the delicate media sector, the idea of it also taking over the country's biggest telecom company can only raise alarm".
