* Senegal abandons Sonatel share sale to France Telecom

* Proposed sale sparked opposition, labeled colonial

By Diadie Ba

DAKAR, May 1 (Reuters) - Senegal has abandoned a planned share sale that would have handed majority ownership of state telecoms company Sonatel SNT.CI to France Telecom (FTE.PA: Quote, Profile, Research), government and union officials said on Friday.

Cash-strapped Senegal had planned to raise over 200 million euros by selling nearly 10 percent of Sonatel to France Telecom, a move that would have made the French firm the majority shareholder in Sonatel with 52.2 percent.

But critics attacked the deal as "colonial," complained that jobs would be lost in the process and, in some parts of Dakar, launched "go slow" protests to try and block it.

"The government tells us that the solution of selling (the shares) to France Telecom has been canceled and we can only congratulate the advisors of the president," Ibrahima Konte, a Sonatel union leader, said on state television on Friday.

Konte was speaking after he held a meeting with a government delegation, which included President Abdoulaye Wade's son, a newly-appointed government minister.

Former colonial power France had to lend Senegal 125 million euros late last year to help the government clear its internal debts.