Italy's biggest labour organisation has urged the government to do all it can to restart talks aimed at saving the beleaguered national airline, Alitalia.
Guglielmo Epifani, head of the Italian Confederation of Labour, said ministers had a duty to broker a deal between the unions and potential buyers.
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Alitalia is estimated to be losing more than 2m euros ($2.9m; Ј1.6m) every day.
With nationalisation banned under European competition rules and foreign buyers showing no interest the airline faces bankruptcy as early as next week.
Mr Epifani told La Repubblica newspaper the only alternative to resurrecting the deal with CAI consortium was finding a foreign buyer.
Flights cancelled
In a TV interview, Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi poured cold water on the idea of finding a foreign bidder.
"The other big flag carriers aren't interested in getting Alitalia out of trouble," he said.
Mr Berlusconi said he still hoped that a solution could be found, but conceded that the airline could be "heading towards bankruptcy procedures".
Alitalia cancelled a number of flights from Rome's Fiumicino airport last week, amid rumours it can no longer afford to buy aviation fuel.
The firm's shares were suspended in June and the airline is being run by a special administrator following its move into bankruptcy protection last month.
The CAI consortium's takeover offer was backed by three of Alitalia's nine unions, but six opposed it, unhappy at plans to cut 3,000 jobs.
Unions also blocked a takeover bid by Air France-KLM earlier this year.
(BBC)
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