Berlusconi calls on unions as Alitalia faces abyss

By Robin Pomeroy and Alberto Sisto

ROME (Reuters) - Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi called airline unions to emergency talks on Saturday evening in a last-ditch effort to save national flag carrier Alitalia from collapse.

The airline said it may have to ground planes from Monday as it could not secure fuel from wary suppliers and Italy's aviation authority said that put its operating licence at risk.

"We're holding our breath," Berlusconi told reporters waiting for news outside his central Rome apartment.

Labour Minister Maurizio Sacconi told ANSA news agency there was "a point beyond which (talking) becomes useless and we are very close to that point".

Once a symbol of Italy's post-war boom, Alitalia has for years suffered from political interference, labour disputes, financial woes and most recently from soaring fuel costs -- which are taking down other airlines around the world.

Britain's third largest package holiday operator XL Leisure Group grounded all flights on Friday after going into administration. Discount transatlantic carrier Zoom Airlines began bankruptcy proceedings last month.

Letting Alitalia collapse would be a huge political blow for Berlusconi who promised voters who returned him to power this year that he would use his business contacts to find an Italian buyer for the near-bankrupt airline.

Unions have rejected the terms of a takeover by a consortium of Italian investors which would have meant thousands of job cuts and lower pay as the airline would have been reborn as a smaller carrier, stripped of loss-making operations and debt pile.