By Lisa Jucca and Danilo Masoni MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia has appointed a panel of directors to consider a proposed tie-up with Hutchison Whampoa which would make the Hong Kong group Telecom Italia's top shareholder in return for merging their local mobile businesses.

By Arno Schuetze, Lisa Jucca and Danilo Masoni FRANKFURT/MILAN (Reuters) - Hong Kong's Hutchison Whampoa <0013.HK> is in talks to buy up to 29.9 percent of Telecom Italia <TLIT.MI> in a deal that would radically alter the power base at Italy's leading phone company, two sources familiar with the negotiations said.

Vodafone, China Mobile and an investment fund linked to billionaire George Soros are among 22 bidders vying to enter Myanmar, one of the world's last unexplored mobile telephone frontiers. Foreign giants are lining up in the hope of doing business in the former army-ruled country, where less than 10 percent of the population has access to a telephone -- a figure the government hopes to boost to 80 percent by 2016. "Our telecom sector has been so outdated," said Set Aung, deputy minister of national planning and economic development.

US operator Verizon has denied speculation it was preparing a joint bid with AT&T to buy out British mobile phone giant Vodafone and divide up its assets between them. "As Verizon has said many times, it would be a willing purchaser of the 45 percent stake that Vodafone holds in Verizon Wireless. "It does not, however, currently have any intention to merge with or make an offer for Vodafone, whether alone or in conjunction with others," Verizon said in a statement filed Tuesday with the Securities and Exchange Commission.