UPDATE 4-Italy PM aide seeks to revive Alitalia deal

(Adds new meetings with unions)

By Stephen Brown and Alberto Sisto

ROME, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's right-hand man on Wednesday held a flurry of meetings with the main players in Alitalia's faltering sale, amid speculation that a last-minute deal to save the airline could be pulled off.

With the Thursday deadline looming for Alitalia to present a new rescue plan or lose its operating licence next week and see more than 19,000 workers sacked, Berlusconi cancelled a visit to the U.N. General Assembly in New York to attend to the crisis.

The commissioner overseeing Alitalia's bankruptcy, Augusto Fantozzi, told reporters he was "reasonably optimistic" that a deal to sell some assets to the CAI consortium, which withdrew its rescue offer for the airline last week, could be revived.

An agreement with unions could be struck as early as Sept. 30, he said.

In separate meetings, Berlusconi's aide Gianni Letta held talks with CAI executives, union officials and former Alitalia CEO Francesco Mengozzi, now a consultant to Air France-KLM (AIRF.PA).

The talks with Mengozzi focused on Air France-KLM taking a stake of between 15 and 25 percent in the CAI consortium if it revives its bid for Alitalia, a source close to the talks said.

It was not clear whether the reported proposal carried the official backing of Air France-KLM, whose board is expected to meet on Thursday to discuss management changes.

Air France-KLM had previously been negotiating with CAI for a stake closer to 10-15 percent.

Much depends on whether a deal with Alitalia's notoriously combative unions can be reached and if so, on how much each CAI partner would invest in a revived bid.

LATE NIGHT TALKS

As meetings continued late into the night, a source close to the talks said the head of Italy's biggest union CGIL, which rejected CAI's conditions of 3,250 job cuts and downgrades in contracts, was now inclined to accept the offer.

CGIL boss Guglielmo Epifani was expected to join three other labour groups which have already given their greenlight to the rescue plan at a meeting at Berlusconi's office on Thursday, the source said.

But it remained unclear whether five smaller unions, representing pilots and cabin crew, could be persuaded to sign up to a deal they have so far opposed.

Pilots' representatives also met Letta late on Wednesday but declined to comment to reporters after the talks. "It's a delicate moment," one of them, Massimo Notaro, said.