SNCF offers high-speed venture to Air France -paper

PARIS, July 15 (Reuters) - Airline Air France KLM (AIRF.PA) is in preliminary talks with state railways company SNCF about high-speed train cooperation even before the liberalisation of rail travel by 2010, Liberation newspaper said on Tuesday.

The French paper said SNCF has offered to Air France to set up a special joint unit for the rail link between airport hubs.

Air France last week confirmed its interest in high-speed train travel and said it was in talks with Veolia (VIE.PA) Transport, which does not currently have a high-speed train service.

Air France and SNCF had no immediate comment on the report.

High-speed rail links have already taken traffic from short distance air links. With existing or upcoming high-speed rail links between Paris, Amsterdam or Frankfurt, airlines could transport long-distance air travellers to their hubs -- boosting the load factor and cutting costs. (Reporting by Marcel Michelson and Nathalie Meistermann; Editing by Quentin Bryar)