"We're working on a range of measures to create common and stable conditions across the EU for telecoms competition, investment and growth, which should also make cross-border consolidation more attractive," the European commissioner for digital agenda said in comments published on the paper's website on Sunday.

Kroes said she was not seeking a single regulator, but greater cooperation between the European Commission and national regulators, as well as asset-sharing between companies to promote investment.

The comments followed a report in the Financial Times on Wednesday that EU competition chief Joaquin Almunia had met with the heads of Europe's big telecoms groups to discuss a pan-European infrastructure network.

However, industry sources later played down the idea of a single network, saying the November meeting had focused on whether the large number of operators could be consolidated through takeovers.

Executives from Deutsche Telekom (>> Deutsche Telekom AG), France Telecom (>> FRANCE TELECOM), Telecom Italia (>> Telecom Italia S.p.A.), Telefonica (>> Telefonica SA), KPN (>> KPN KON) and Belgacom (>> BELGACOM) attended the meeting with Almunia.

(Reporting by Rosalba O'Brien; Editing by Dale Hudson)