Alitalia?s biggest unions clinched an initial deal with the airline?s potential buyers yesterday, raising hopes it could avoid collapse, but pilots balked and flights risked being grounded for a lack of cash to buy fuel. Italy?s four main unions ? CGIL, CISL, UIL and UGL ? and a consortium offering to buy Alitalia agreed to the rough outline of a rescue plan that would cut about 3,000 jobs but leave 12,500 workers at the slimmed-down airline. Thousands others are in units that would be spun off. ?It? a first, important step,? said Raffaele Bonanni of the CISL union.

Traffic at the main international airports in Rome and Milan was normal so far yesterday, airport officials said, although the civil aviation authority said at the weekend Alitalia?s operating licence was at risk after the airline confirmed it was having trouble buying jet fuel from wary suppliers.

ENI Chief Executive Paolo Scaroni said the Italian oil company would not give Alitalia fuel without cash up front. ?Not even if Berlusconi or the Pope asks me to,? Scaroni told La Repubblica newspaper. ?(Eni) cannot supply fuel to airlines if they cannot pay cash. There is no moral suasion -- international agreements are clear.?

It was not clear whether other smaller unions representing pilots and cabin crews would agree to the deal being negotiated by their peers. They initially scoffed at the agreement and questioned why they were excluded from talks. Industry Minister Claudio Scajola warned there were ?only a few hours left? to save Alitalia, whose shares have been suspended since June.

A prominent union leader, UIL?s Luigi Angeletti, suggested there was more time for talks, however, noting that it would still take days for the Italian consortium to buy the airline.Negotiations on tricky issues like salary cuts resumed in the late morning, with no guarantee of success.

?The persistent problem which could, if not resolved, cause this initiative to fail is the new job contracts,? Labour minister Maurizio Sacconi said. Alitalia, now operating under a bankruptcy commissioner, risks becoming the first major EU flag carrier to go bust since Swissair collapsed in 2001. Belgium?s Sabena filed for bankruptcy in 2001. Once a symbol of Italy?s post-war boom, Alitalia has for years suffered from political interference, labour disputes, financial woes and, most recently, from the soaring fuel costs which have weighed on airlines around the world. The airline has not been in profit since 1999 and had nearly 1.2 billion euros of debt as of July.