Telecom Italia does not need to merge with rivals in Italy - CEO

ROME (Reuters) - Telecom Italia does not need to merge with competitors in Italy, its chief executive Marco Patuano said on Thursday.

"Telecom does not need to merge with competitors. That would create dominant positions, even though there are nice telecoms assets around such as Metroweb's," Patuano told a parliamentary hearing.

"There is talk of a merger between H3G e Wind... Also we have been discussing a possible merger between TIM and H3G but in the end we could not reach an agreement," he said.

Telecom Italia is controlled by Telefonica and three Italian financial companies.

(Reporting by Alberto Sisto, writing by Danilo Masoni)