The strike has left many passengers stranded

An agreement to start talks on a rescue deal for Alitalia between unions, management and government should have ended the action on Thursday evening.

But many of the state airline's workers have stayed on strike for a third day, causing the cancellation of all but a handful of flights.

The airline said it could guarantee only 10 departures during the day.

The action is continuing despite orders from Rome's prefect, Achille Serra, who wants the chaos at the city's Fiumicino airport to cease.

In the red

The strike was triggered by workers' concerns about the future of Alitalia, which has been in trouble for years.

Capital injections have done little to stem persistent losses, which reached 510m euros in 2003 - almost double the level the year before.

The current restructuring plan could put one in six of the 20,000 staff out of a job, in the hope of cleaning up the balance sheet and then sealing an alliance with KLM and Air France.

The government is desperate to avoid Alitalia - of which it owns 62% - suffering the same fate as Sabena, the Belgian carrier which was forced to shut down.

But staff at Fiumicino made it clear that the unions were not doing enough to protect their interests.

"It's not enough for us to know that talks will restart on Monday, we want facts," one maintenance worker told the Reuters news agency.