A special 'bridge' loan for troubled national airline Alitalia has extended the carrier's life by 12 months, the government said in a note accompanying a decree authorising the cash.
The decree cleared the Senate last week and is currently before the House for its definitive green light.
The government's claim that Alitalia had enough cash for another year was criticised by former industry minister Pierluigi Bersani who likened it to ''pulling a rabbit out of a hat''.
Opposition leader Walter Veltroni also expressed his doubts and observed that ''no one believes this. All you need to do is the math based on its losses''.
The 300-million-euro loan risks getting a thumbs down from the European Union because Italy is not allowed to give any further state aid to the carrier.
British Airways and budget carrier Ryanair have also promised to battle the loan.
In other developments, Aeroflot Russian Airlines admitted on Thursday that it had met with Alitalia officials to discuss re-opening partnerships talks but that nothing came of this.
Meanwhile, Spanish carrier Iberia said flatly that it has absolutely no interest in buying Alitalia.
The conservative government of Premier Silvio Berlusconi is trying to put together a consortium of Italian business interests to buy the Treasury's controlling 49.9% stake in Alitalia but no alliance has yet officially come forward.
Any plan to save Alitalia would also have to involve a strategic industrial partner, another airline which would be responsible for the practical running of the carrier.
No airline has yet expressed any interest to do this except Air One, Italy's largest private carrier which is much smaller than Alitalia.
Alitalia this week confirmed that it posted 495 million euros in losses in 2007, equal to 1.35 million euros a day.
However, this was an improvement over its losses of 626 million euros in 2006.
