Italy's national airline Alitalia needs an international partner, and not a foreign owner, the country's Deputy Prime Minister Francesco Rutelli said on 19th September.

Rutelli told the press that the troubled carrier must adopt "a new industrial plan, which seeks to reinforce the airline and not just to sell it off cheap."

"Alitalia is a company, which has been in deep trouble for years. Although many mistakes have been made, the country still needs its own carrier," he added.

The deputy prime minister reiterated that Alitalia would be better off to find a partner outside Europe, as "it has more enemies than friends" on the continent.

"We need a non-European partner because European airlines are stronger than Alitalia and would just absorb it," he said. "More than towards Europe, Alitalia should look east, from where we expect tourism to increase in the future."

However, he added, this did not mean that an alliance with Air France should be ruled out because "all options must remain open."

Alitalia last week reported losses of 221 million euros (about 274 million dollars) for the first six months of this year, nearly double the 125-million-euro (155-million-dollar) deficit for the same period in 2005.

Much of the blame for this has gone to Alitalia CEO Giancarlo Cimoli who had pushed through an industrial plan, which promised a turnaround for the airline this year.

Cimoli's plan involved splitting the airline into two units, one dealing with flight operations and the other with ground services, and slashing about a fifth of the airline's workforce.

He also foresaw a future alliance with Air France, which is merging with KLM of the Netherlands, to create Europe's biggest airline.

Rutelli is one of four ministers, who have now openly called for Cimoli's replacement and for a new manager to take over.

The other ministers are Antonio Di Pietro (Infrastructure), Alessandro Bianchi (Transport) and Alfonso Pecoraro Scanio (Environment).

On 18th September, Alitalia staff staged a four-hour strike against Cimoli's management.