Venezuela's Aserca denies Alitalia offer

Italian news agency ANSA earlier quoted Aserca director-general Hugo Santoro as saying in a statement that 'over the coming days, we will send details of our proposal to the special administrator' of Alitalia. However an airline spokesman said that 'Mr Hugo Santoro does not work at the company. The statement didn't come from here. We have no idea how the statement was distributed,.' the spokesman added. Once-proud Alitalia sent out an SOS on Monday, publishing a final appeal on its website for investors to take over the near-bankrupt company and its fractious unions. The move came as the head of Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC said the airline, which is 49.9%state-owned, could be grounded by tomorrow if it does not come up with a 'credible' cost-reduction plan. A deadline of September 30 has been set for offers. According to the ANSA news agency, the Italian government is working on the possibility of bringing in a foreign airline with at most a 30% stake into the Italian consortium CAI, which last week withdrew its bid for Alitalia after it was rejected by most of the unions.