MILAN/ROME, Dec 19 (Reuters) - Italy's Treasury and

Spanish fund Asterion have made a 700 million euro ($733

million) joint binding offer for Telecom Italia's (TIM)

submarine cable unit Sparkle, the ministry and the

former phone monopoly said on Thursday.

The sale is part of infrastructure asset sales by TIM Chief

Executive Pietro Labriola, aimed at cutting the company's debt

and focusing on its services business.

The ministry is bidding with Retelit, an Italian fibre

network operator owned by Spanish infrastructure fund Asterion.

The offer, which confirmed a preliminary valuation for the

unit, is valid until Jan. 27, TIM and the ministry said in

separate statements.

"The deal would grant TIM additional resources to revamp its

business and cut debt, without hitting its cash generation

profile", broker Intermonte said in a daily note.

Rome is keen to secure control of Sparkle, a firm deemed of

strategic importance due to its cable network of more than

600,000 km (372,823 miles) that transmits information between

countries in Europe, the Mediterranean and the Americas.

TIM has scheduled a board meeting on Friday to start

discussing the offer, people with knowledge of the matter said.

As a result of the sale, the Treasury is expected to have a

stake of about 70% in Sparkle, with Asterion holding the

remainder, the people said.

TIM finalised the sale of its domestic fixed line access

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 16% stake in the network venture.

($1 = 0.9548 euros)

(Reporting by Giuseppe Fonte and Elvira Pollina, editing by

Giulia Segreti and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)