Italian group is sole bidder in Greek railway privatisation

(Adds more detail, background)

ATHENS, July 6 (Reuters) - Italy's state railway company looks poised to buy Greece's railway operator TRAINOSE after being the sole bidder for the group, which is being sold under the government's privatisation programme.

Privatisations are a condition of Greece's latest international bailout but the country's protracted economic crisis has sapped investor interest and Athens had pushed back the original deadline for binding bids for TRAINOSE three times this year.

Ferrovie dello Stato submitted a binding bid by the time the deadline expired at 1400 GMT on Wednesday, Greece's privatisation agency HRADF said in a statement.

Two other potential investors, Russian Railways and Greek construction group GEK-Terna (Amsterdam: TX6.AS - news) , which expressed non-binding interest in April, dropped out.

Russian Railways said in a statement that it didn't make an offer because the information currently available, including on several key aspects of TRAINOSE'S (Other OTC: UBGXF - news) activities, didn't allow it to fully assess the company's current health and future prospects.

It said it would continue to look at other possibilities to team up with Greek partners.

Athens aims to raise 6 billion euros ($6.6 bln) from privatisations by 2018 and sources close to the process have said it expected to earn 50 million euros from the sale of TRAINOSE and rail maintenance company ROSCO together.

However, the agency said it did not receive any binding offers for ROSCO, which it had also put up for sale. HRADF said its board would convene immediately to examine the next steps.

Metro (Other OTC: MTRAF - news) and rail transport across Greece came to a halt on Wednesday due to a 24-hour strike by workers opposing both sales.

Privatisations are an integral part of Greece's international bailout agreements since 2010. However they have reaped just 3 billion euros so far, far short of an initial target of 50 billion euros, amid political resistance, bureaucratic problems and union opposition. ($1 = 0.9039 euros) (Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou, Additional reporting by Gleb Stolyarov in Moscow,; Editing by Susan Fenton)