Silvio Berlusconi, Italy's prime minister-elect, yesterday said a group of Italian businesses would make an offer for loss-making Alitalia within weeks but warned trade union leaders to expect "painful" job cuts.

The billionaire businessman, who will be sworn in as prime minister for a third time next month, clashed with trade union leaders over who was responsible for Air France-KLM withdrawing its offer for the flag-­carrier on Monday.

During the recent election campaign Mr Berlusconi had been critical of a proposed takeover of Alitalia by Air France-KLM. He has now blamed the unions' "veto" for halting the talks.

Union leaders reacted with predictable outrage and Mr Berlusconi later moderated his comments.

However, the exchange revealed the difficulties the new centre-right government might encounter in persuading the unions to accept large-scale job cuts.

The outgoing centre-left government agreed to Mr Berlusconi's request on Tuesday night to provide Alitalia with a €300 million loan in order to stave off bankruptcy and give the incoming administration two or three months to find a buyer for the state's 49.9 per cent stake.

The European Commission said that it would act quickly to determine whether the loan broke rules on providing state aid.