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The Rome government, which holds 49.9 percent of the company, has been trying to sell its stake for over a year.

Alitalia's board last week backed the French company's offer over one from tiny Italian domestic rival Air One. The government has the final word on who gets the Rome-based carrier, which is losing more than a million euros each day.

Following are some details about the bids and reaction in the last few days.

AIR FRANCE

- Air France is bidding 0.35 euros per share and is offering to buy all convertible bonds, according to a source close to the talks.

- The Franco-Dutch carrier's plans to resuscitate Alitalia are broadly in line with those drawn up in August by Alitalia's Chairman Maurizio Prato as part of a survival plan.

- Air France says it would aim for Alitalia to win back the Italian market where it has lost ground to low-cost carriers.

- In line with Prato's plans, Alitalia would ditch its twin-hub strategy to focus on Rome at the expense of Milan. Rome would be organized as a hub like Charles de Gaulle in Paris and Amsterdam's Schiphol, while many medium and long-haul direct flights would operate out of Milan as well.

- It would immediately inject at least 750 million euros ($1.10 billion) into Alitalia through a capital increase open to all shareholders and fully underwritten by Air France-KLM.

- There would be no further redundancies over those already planned by Alitalia, which could mean up to 1,700 job losses.

- Air France-KLM would renew all Alitalia's Boeing Co MD80 short/medium-haul fleet and the B767 long-haul fleet. It has denied it would transform Alitalia into a regional carrier if successful in its bid.

REACTION

- Air France's bid has stirred up nationalist sentiment in Italy and the centre left government, divided between the bids, has been besieged by intense lobbying from some unions and regional politicians who want it to remain in Italian hands.

They fear Alitalia will be reduced to a regional airline that follows order from Paris.

- Three pilot and flight assistant unions have warned they were ready to "paralyze" Italy for days if the government did not disown the decision by Alitalia's board to back Air France-KLM.

AIR ONE

- Air One was offering 0.01 euro per share with investment of 5.3 billion euros.

- It plans 3,700 job cuts and would invest 5.3 billion euros by 2012, mainly to renew Alitalia's fleet. It plans to bring in 130 new aircraft.

- Smaller than Alitalia, it is backed by Italy's largest retail bank Intesa Sanpaolo (), Japan's Nomura, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.