MILAN (Reuters) -- Italian stock market operator Borsa Italiana is ready to study a joint offer with Deutsche Boerse for Euronext, which has already agreed a $10 billion deal to merge with the NYSE, Il Sole 24 Ore newspaper said.

The plan would include creation of listed holdings for market operations and one for post-trading, the financial daily said in its Saturday edition, with the bourse tie-up on a federal model favored by some European governments.

Borsa Italiana, which is not listed, said on Friday in a statement it would start talks with interested bourses on a possible European federation of stock exchanges.

Borsa Italiana could not be immediately reached for comment on Saturday.

A Deutsche Boerse spokesman declined to comment on Saturday on the Italian newspaper report.

Euronext's chief spokeswoman said on Friday the extension of its model across Europe "has been our wish from the start ... this model would be even stronger if it was backed by an international alliance such as the Euronext-NYSE one."

The past 18 months have seen increasing consolidation among stock exchanges that culminated last month with Euronext's agreement with the New York Stock Exchange and its rejection of a separate approach from Deutsche Boerse.

Euronext operates the Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels and Lisbon bourses as well as London's Euronext.Liffe derivatives market. It is structured as a federation of bourses.

Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi and French President Jacques Chirac have said they prefer a pan-European alliance of bourses rather than the transatlantic tie-up with NYSE.

Il Sole said an offer from Borsa Italiana and Deutsche Boerse could get around restrictions on Euronext from looking at alternatives to its tie-up with NYSE.

Deutsche Boerse CEO Reto Francioni has signaled his company could be willing to give up its request for a majority of board members in any merged group -- a stumbling block in its own offer for Euronext -- according to Il Sole.

(additional reporting by Andreas Framke in Frankfurt)

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