MILAN, Jan 5 (Reuters) - Edison's chief executive said on Thursday that rumours French power group EDF plans to sell its Italian arm are "groundless".

The rumours "were already circulating last summer, and our shareholder had denied them. There is not an Edison dossier at the moment", Nicola Monti was quoted as saying in an interview with Italian daily La Stampa.

EDF denied an Italian media report last August that it was considering a sale of its Italian unit.

The French government is in the process of fully nationalising EDF to give it more scope to run the debt-laden nuclear utility. Energy analysts have said a sale of Edison could help EDF reduce its debt and press ahead with an ambitious investment plan.

Italian media reported in August that EDF planned to kick off a sale process for Edison in the first quarter of this year once the nationalisation process had been completed.

A2A's chief executive told Reuters in December that Italy's second-biggest utility was interested in buying Edison, adding EDF could decide on a sale of its Italian subsidiary in a year or so.

Monti said Edison had terminated a gas supply contract with Russia's Gazprom on Dec. 31. "We have a diversified, independent portfolio with which we cover 20% of domestic demand," he said.

Last April, the energy company said it would not renew the contract with the Russian group, citing the conflict in Ukraine.

The company's long-term contract with Gazprom expired two years ago and had been renewed on a yearly basis since. (Reporting by Cristina Carlevaro, editing by Gianluca Semeraro and Mark Potter)