DUBAI,(Reuters) – Dubai airline Emirates said on Friday it was not interested in participating in a possible bid for Italy’s struggling Alitalia, contrary to the latest newspaper reports.

“We are not interested,” an Emirates spokeswoman said. “We are focused on our own organic growth.”

Early on Friday, Italian dailies Corriere della Sera and Il Messaggero cited market rumours that Emirates was in touch with a group of investors being brought together by an advisor to Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi for a possible bid.

The adviser, Bruno Ermolli, is working on a rescue plan for Alitalia which would involve a group of investors buying into the airline, which the government has repeatedly failed to sell.

Emirates’ name has popped up in the Italian press in the past as a possible investor in Alitalia and last September it denied reports it could invest in the airline along with a group of African banks, U.S. and Chinese funds and an Italian partner.