MILAN, Oct 21 (Reuters) - U.S. asset manager FortressInvestment Group has entered exclusive talks to buy a 1billion euro ($1.1 billion) portfolio of Italian house loansfrom Barclays, two sources close to the matter said.
The British bank is selling its Italian retail network,which comprises 90 branches, as well as performing housemortgages in the country.
Barclays owns 18 billion euros in Italian house loans andwas initially looking to start with the sale of a 4 billion europortfolio.
Sources have previously said Barclays is selling the Italianretail unit and the mortgage portfolio to separate buyers in aneffort to maximise value, after strong interest from U.S. assetmanagers and hedge funds for the mortgages.
One of the sources said Mediobanca's retail armChe Banca and Dutch group ING had expressed an interestin the branch network.
Mediobanca CEO Alberto Nagel earlier this month toldreporters the bank had a plan of "autonomous growth" for CheBanca when asked about a possible bid for Barclays' Italiannetwork.
Fortress, Mediobanca and ING declined to comment.($1 = 0.8806 euros) (Reporting by Massimo Gaia and Pamela Barbaglia, writing byValentina Za, editing by Stephen Jewkes)