MILAN (Reuters) - UniCredit is ready to sit down with Credit Agricole, a spokesperson for the Italian bank said in a LinkedIn post after the French lender increased its potential stake in Unicredit's takeover target Banco BPM.

UniCredit's bid for its smaller peer prompted Credit Agricole to say on Friday it had entered derivatives that would raise its stake in BPM to 15% from 9.9% once the European Central Bank gives its green light.

"Yesterday's news about Credit Agricole's increased stake in BPM changes nothing for UniCredit," the spokesperson for UniCredit said on social media network LinkedIn.

"We were always prepared to negotiate with CA, as this would have been necessary whatever the scale of their shareholding."