ROME, Dec 19 (Reuters) - A consortium led by the Italian

economy ministry has filed a 700 million euro ($733 million)

binding offer for Telecom Italia's (TIM) submarine

cable unit Sparkle, the ministry said on Thursday.

The ministry is bidding with Retelit, an Italian fibre

network operator owned by Spanish infrastructure fund Asterion.

The offer is valid until Jan. 27, the statement said.

Italy is looking to secure control of Sparkle, a firm deemed

of strategic importance due to its cable network of more than

600,000 km that transmits information between countries in

Europe, the Mediterranean and the Americas.

TIM is expected to hold a board meeting on Friday to start

discussing the offer, a source with knowledge of the matter

said.

The sale of Sparkle is part of infrastructure asset sales by

TIM Chief Executive Pietro Labriola, aimed at cutting the

company's debt pile and focusing on its services business.

TIM finalised the sale of its domestic fixed line asset

network to U.S. fund KKR at the start of July. The deal,

worth up to 22 billion euros, was backed by the Italian

government, which took a stake in the network venture.

($1 = 0.9548 euros)