Pirelli Chairman Marco Tronchetti Provera indicated on Tuesday that he was in no hurry to sell control of Telecom Italia and could wait until he was offered a good price.
Tronchetti was speaking a day after American telecommunications giant AT&T abruptly quit negotiations for the Italian group, citing "uncertainty" over rules governing the national telecoms market.
AT&T's departure left Mexico's America Movil still negotiating to buy part of Pirelli's 80% stake in Olimpia, the company which controls Telecom through an 18% shareholding.
"Pirelli is considering whether to sell its stake in Olimpia but it will only do so if the price is right," Tronchetti said in a statement.
"Making foreign companies run away one at a time to bring the price down doesn't work," he added, in an apparent reference to Italian government moves to encourage an Italian buyer to come forward for Telecom.
Italian Premier Romano Prodi, commenting during a visit to Japan, on Tuesday confirmed his hope that Telecom would remain Italian.
"The market has its rules and nobody wants to interfere with them but obviously it's legitimate to hope that at least one telecommunications company remain in Italian hands," he said.
The government has recent made moves to separate Telecom's fixed telephone network from the company, in order to ensure all telephony operators have equal access.
The European Union reminded Rome last week that such a move could only be imposed by an independent telecoms authority, not by the government.
The EU again indicated it was watching the Telecom affair closely on Tuesday although it declined to comment directly on AT&T's abandonment of the negotiations in a move seen as connected to the network separation plan.
A spokesman for Information and Media Commissioner Viviane Reding said: "We believe that the Italian telecoms market should be open to all the companies in the world".
Shares in Telecom Italia and Pirelli and its biggest shareholder plunged at the Milan opening on Tuesday in reaction to AT&T's move but later recovered ground. Telecom closed down 1.43% at 2.35 euros and Pirelli shed 0,71%,leaving its shares a 0.8957 euros.
America Movil has said it is still considering a potential investment in Telecom.
Telecom and America Movil own Brazil's second and third largest mobile phone operators and a partnership there could give them a dominant position in one of the world's top wireless markets.
NEW TELECOM BOARD ELECTED.
Hundreds of shareholders representing more than a third of all Telecom shares held a key meeting on Monday which continued into the early hours of Tuesday morning.
The shareholders elected a 19-strong board, confirming Carlo Buora as executive deputy chairman and Riccardo Ruggiero as CEO.
In accordance with Telecom's statutes, Olimpia nominated four-fifths of the board while minority shareholders chose the remaining fifth.
The board was to meet later on Tuesday to elect a new chairman. Pasquale Pistorio, the former chairman of semiconductor firm STMicroelectronics, is seen as the most likely candidate to replace Rossi.
Pirelli chief Marco Tronchetti Provera, who himself abruptly quit as Telecom chairman last September, said on Tuesday that he admired Pistorio and believed he was suited for the job.
Guido Rossi, a respected troubleshooter and corporate lawyer who oversaw Telecom's privatisation in 1997 under Prodi's first government, resigned as chairman on April 6 after seven months on the job.
He left after Pirelli moved to sack him by omitting his name from the list of proposed new board members to be put to shareholders.
Italy's centre-right opposition continued on Tuesday to accuse Prodi of meddling in Telecom's business and putting the Americans off with transparent hostility to the deal.
The government agreed to opposition senators' demands that it report to the Senate on the Telecom issue in a session slated for early May.
Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy's biggest bank has confirmed it is interested in a temporary investment in Telecom.
Prodi said on Tuesday that he was not surprised by AT&T's withdrawal.
Speaking from Tokyo, where he is on an official visit, Prodi said that "I've always had the impression that the Mexicans were the most interested".
