An Italian bid for ailing airline Alitalia is being lined up as an alternative to Air France's offer, ex-premier and media magnate Silvio Berlusconi said Wednesday.
Berlusconi said the bidders would ask for ''three or four weeks'' to find out ''the real situation'' at Alitalia.
He noted that Air France had had six months to assess the airline's financial position. The names of the new bidders would be made public in a matter of days, Berlusconi said.
Speaking on the stump in this northern Lazio town, the conservative leader said: ''An Italian consortium for Italia is not just hot air. Right now, today, there are several businessmen working on this''.
Berlusconi, who has a strong lead in opinion polls ahead of the April 13-14 general election, said he could not name them ''for a question of privacy''.
However, he assured his listeners that the bidders would be ''known to all in a matter of days''.
Asked if his sons might be involved, Berlusconi replied: ''In your dreams''.
Last week, in his first statement that enough Italian businessmen could be found to save the near-bankrupt airline, Berlusconi cited his sons as an example of such patriotic entrepreneurs.
But now, he said he had realised this would give his opponents an opportunity to make allegations about conflicts of interest.
The consortium that is taking shape will go through the airline's books and examine its potential in about a month before making ''a binding offer,'' Berlusconi said.
Air France and its Dutch partner KLM have made a takeover bid which has been approved by Alitalia and the Italian government but has run into union trouble.
Agreement from unions is required for the deal to go through.
The leader of Italy's biggest trade union said after Berlusconi's announcement that the unions would continue to negotiate with Air France.
''We don't believe in mythical consortia,'' said Guglielmo Epifani of the CGIL.
Air France on Tuesday said it would go the extra mile to keep as many Alitalia staff as possible on board. Some union leaders have voiced fears that the Italian bid will only take shape once Air France bails out and the airline goes into receivership - as happened a few years ago with Belgian airline Sabena.
Berlusconi has been accused of using Alitalia to score political points.
A poll out Wednesday said 55% of Italians thought his talk of an Italian bid was ''just electioneering''.
Earlier this week Berlusconi's spokesman said the former premier's announcement, first made last week, was in fact ''just a proposal''.
Apart from a question of national pride, Berlusconi's People of Liberty Party (PDL) is opposed to the Air France plan because Milan's Malpensa airport would lose out to Rome's Fiumicino.
The regionalist Northern League, the PDL's main ally, has been vehement on this issue.
