Rome, 19 Sept. (AKI) - The Italian government has ruled out a renationalisation of the bankrupt Italian carrier Alitalia on Friday.

"An absurd hypothesis" said Giulio Tremonti, Italy's Economy Minister while speaking to his cabinet colleagues, citing differences with European Union law.

The Italian government, which has a 49.9 percent stake in Alitalia, has been trying to sell the airline for over two years.

Meanwhile, Italy's civil aviation authority ENAC could suspend Alitalia's operating license, in the next 7-10 days starting from next Monday unless a new rescue plan is presented.

On Thursday, a consortium of investors withdrew its offer to buy the national carrier.

The consortium, the CAI, failed to get all of the airline's nine unions to endorse the offer before the deadline on Thursday afternoon.

Alitalia's bankruptcy commissioner, Antonio Fantozzi, announced on Monday that 4,385 out of Alitalia's 20,000 staff would be laid off for between 6 and 12 days a month after 34 planes were grounded.

The affected workers include 831 pilots, 1,383 flight attendants and 2,072 ground staff.

Alitalia is losing around 2 million euros a day, and is surviving on a government loan which will last it until the end of the month. The company filed for insolvency on 29 August.

Dutch-French carrier Air France-KLM in April withdrew a takeover offer for Alitalia after it failed to get union acceptance of its restructuring plan.