Parmalat founder Calisto Tanzi has apologised for the scandal

Italy's financial market watchdog Consob wants more details relating to Parmalat's foreign businesses and the firm's ongoing legal wranglings.

Parmalat's new management, appointed after the discovery of massive debts, aimed to relist the firm by July.

The firm wants to swap 12bn euros (�8.2bn; $15.5bn) of debt for shares.

Pushed back

Consob had a deadline of Thursday to either approve or reject Parmalat's relisting based on earnings for the first half of 2004.

The company will now have to refile its application and include earnings for the whole of 2004.

That is likely to delay any return to the Milan-based stock market until the end of the year, press reports said.

The Italian dairy company filed for bankruptcy protection after a fraud scandal unearthed a 14bn-euro hole in its accounts.

Relisting on the stock exchange would allow it to convert creditors' debts into shares by selling new equities worth more than 2bn euros.

Creditors are expected to vote on the plan, which would given them less money than they had initially pushed for, later this year.